A Sign of a Troubling Time for certain businesses

Yesterday, I brought my family for monthly kitchen resupply. As usual, we went to Jusco Taman Universiti. At first, I was excited to finally find Faiza Basmati rice. We use this rice for our daily meals. The price is affordable to my family. But, it is difficult to find the rice in a small retail shop (even it is difficult to find the rice in a two lot retail shops)

Then, I also found the new rice from Faiza (not really that new). Moghul Basmathi rice. The first time we tasted the rice was about two weeks ago. I attended my friend's daughter wedding and received a small portion of Moghul Basmathi rice as a token back home. The price?

Wow! It is a lot more expensive than the normal Faiza Kashmir Basmathi which can be bought at RM30 to RM32 for 5kg. Since I already bought 5kg of Faiza Kashmir Basmathi a few days ago, I should postpone buying a new pack of rice. May be I should try using Faiza Moghul Basmathi rice in the future.

However, I was curious with Jusco Taman Universiti. Is the business getting bad for them? There were some changes to the way the Jusco hypermarket operates since it was taken over by a local company from AEON Japan. It is harder to get regular brands. Surprisingly, I found rows of freezers being used to stock a lot of frozen foods are under maintenance.

I don't buy it they are under maintenance at the same time! These are normally where  I bought sausage, burger meat, pau, raw french fries etc. Now, more than 50% are empty due to under maintenance.

These are where I usually bought other type of frozen foods such as yong tau foo ingredients, etc. The basic business formula is to ensure there are many places to stock your supply. It is ridiculous to let the freezers left empty even for maintenance. And this is not the first time I saw this. It has been normal seeing empty freezers in Jusco Taman University for the last six months.

But at least they are still surviving compared to Giant at U-Mall which has been closed months ago! I believe, Jusco Taman Universiti is going to close down. The new owner of Jusco chain has made big blunder by changing many proven regulation by the previous owner. My family have to look for a new place to do monthly resupply.