The Star, Wednesday December 14, 2011

Traders in Kajang trying to mitigate losses after flash floods

IT HAS been 11 days since flash floods had hit Kajang town centre affecting businesses and damaging vehicles parked in several roads in the town.

For some traders, the recovery has been somewhat slow.

Some have tried to mitigate their losses by trying to clear their flood-damaged stock as fast as possible.

Forced to reduce: Shoe trader Lee Tee Khoon arranging his discounted shoes on display inside his shop. The shoes are priced cheaper now as they had been damaged in the flood waters.

 

Ken Lee Wai Hoon, who owns a telecommunications shop along Jalan Raja Haroun, said business had slowed down compared to the same period in the previous months.

“We are usually open at nights and on weekends, because most of our customers come at night to view our phones and services after they get off from work. But I reckon that after hearing about the flood and shop location, they are reluctant to visit,” said Lee.

Lee also said that some of his tenants had joked about lowering the rent as business was quite poor after the floods.

He added that he would think about it.

“For this month, it’s too late to reduce because the rent is collected at the beginning of the month, but perhaps in January. So far, we can still survive,” said Lee.

Other businesses have been more fortunate, such as Madras Jewellers, where damages were mainly limited to some furniture and gift boxes.

“We quickly shifted all the valuables into our safe. And the water was about 60cm high in our shop, so the damage was limited.

“None of our jewellery or gold was affected,” said a salesman, who only wished to be known as Pandidurai.

Pandidurai’s manager, who declined to be named, said for the first few days after the waters receded, business was slow, but now it was back to normal.

In Plaza Metro, Shahruddin Mohd Shariff, who owned a clothing and fabrics shop at Basement 1, said business was running as normal.

He said his shop had not been badly affected by the flood waters, and that he re-opened for business in the afternoon of the following day.

“Luckily we did not have a lot of merchandise on the floor, and the waters reached perhaps two to three centimetres at most. My daughter closed the shop early and we spent half the day cleaning out before re-opening.”