DYNAMISM OF A NIGHT MARKET TAMAN SRI MUDA, SHAH ALAM

Abstract

A Night Market often took place only once to a few days of the week, as the traders rotated around different neighborhoods on different days of the week. This case is to identify the opportunity for inspiring the trader to develop self-confidence, sharpen their business and marketing skills. This case was conducted at Night Market located at Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam. There are 113 licensed traders operated at Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam Night Market. This case began by describing the market area, the role of the local authority, followed by physical market setting, the market atmosphere and the traders' products. The last part of the case focused to the trader on sustaining their business in the Night Market. The night markets have a potential to become the next popular entrepreneurs, since a very small amount of investment is required to start a business and maybe or not the traders able to gain a huge income from the night market business. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Headnote

Abstract

A Night Market often took place only once to a few days of the week, as the traders rotated around different neighborhoods on different days of the week. This case is to identify the opportunity for inspiring the trader to develop self-confidence, sharpen their business and marketing skills. This case was conducted at Night Market located at Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam. There are 113 licensed traders operated at Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam Night Market. This case began by describing the market area, the role of the local authority, followed by physical market setting, the market atmosphere and the traders' products. The last part of the case focused to the trader on sustaining their business in the Night Market. The night markets have a potential to become the next popular entrepreneurs, since a very small amount of investment is required to start a business and maybe or not the traders able to gain a huge income from the night market business.

Keywords: Night Market Dynamism and Night Market Taman Sri Muda.

INTRODUCTION

Night markets in Malaysia are popular destinations among shoppers where it can be found easily in almost every city, town and village. Hsieh & Chang (2006) stated that the values of night markets are highly related with the local people, demonstrating the reality of lifestyle and local culture. In addition, Hsieh & Chang (2006) concluded the main reasons that night markets attracted tourists were novelty-seeking, exercising and experiencing local culture and custom. Eating out overwhelmingly dominated the leisure activities, followed by shopping and novelty-seeking. Those confirm values of night market services on entertainment, recreation, and shopping. The night market is one of the most popular shopping options with unique consumption activities, displays, products, and bargain prices (Su-Hsin Lee, Shu-Chen Chang, Jing-Shoung Hou, and Chung-Hsien Lin, 2008). Night markets are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. Night markets operate in public spaces such as road in residence area and assigned spaces by the local authorities.

The main purpose of this study is to identify the opportunity for aspiring the trader to develop self-confidence, sharpen their business and marketing skills and to suggest improvement strategies for night market development in the future.

The particular night market being investigated was the one located at Taman Sri Muda. The data were collected by understand in depth on the (i) Physical Market Setting which covers the relevant items will be assessed on the area map and street patterns, market area layout, market size, market operations, of the night market being investigated, (ii) Market Atmosphere which covers market operations, accessibility, parking facilities, and the public facilities and, (iii) Traders and Products covers the relevant items will be assessed on the traders in terms of the density and diversity, indicate the time and number of traders set up their stall and products in terms of the displaying, packaging and labeling.

The Background of the Night Market

The Malaysian night market is based on a concept of open-air shopping where street vendors 'take over' a designated street to set up shop. The designated street, a normally busy one, is brightly-lit stalls for as far as the eye can see. The most well-known night markets are those in Taiwan, but they also available in other areas inhabited by ethnic Chinese such as Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Thailand, and Chinatowns worldwide. Night markets are commonly known as 'Pasar Malam' by the locals, which literally mean night market. A night market is a street market in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia that opens in the evening, usually in residential neighborhoods. It brings together a collection of stalls that usually sell goods such as fruit, vegetables, snacks, toys and ornaments at reasonable prices. Night market is often differentiated by ethnicity. A night market often takes place only one to a few days of the week, as the traders rotate around different neighborhoods on different days of the week.

Rationale of the Study

The rationale of the study is benefits to the traders, customers and, to the economic. The night markets are often considered 'incubator' for new entrepreneurs since it requires a very small amount of investment to start a business. It provides the opportunity for aspiring individuals to develop self confidence, and their business and marketing skills. Malaysia has approximately 12 million of population under the age of 30 and they, given enough encouragement, can be attracted to these small retail business. Malaysia definitely needs to provide the avenue for nurturing and providing encouragement for its aspiring retail entrepreneur. At the same time, in the face of several recessions, the federal government has embarked on a scheme which allows low income public employees to set up and operate their own small businesses as a major alternative revenue source. Traders are provided with a platform to improve and learn new entrepreneurial skills such as product development, marketing and retailing.

The night markets represent an excellent alternative to mainstream supermarket shopping with a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and the experience of browsing through night markets. These markets offer variety of choices, often freshly cooked food and extra fresh local vegetables at affordable price. It is also a meeting place where community spirits can be straightened. Invariably, one of the main attractions of shopping at a night market is that there are vibrant occasion where social encounters and interactions take place. It is the atmosphere, the sight, smell and sound, as much as the food which attract repeated visits. Visiting the night markets is a popular pastime for locals where they usually stroll from one end to another looking around, stopping by to look over some things, asking for the price, bargaining for some discount and may choose to buy or just walked on.

The local authorities can earn some returns for issuing license and permits for the traders. They are good for local economies, traders, customers, community, and visitors or tourist. They help customers to become less dependent on the supermarkets and other retail outlets which often markup their price to include the storage and administrative costs. Customers are provided with an option to combat the highly inflated and fluctuating global commodity prices, and ruthless competition in a retail sector through patronizing the night markets. Thus, it provides an effective way of strengthening the local economies. The night markets could be considered a sound business options that can also command significance revenue turnover. The attractiveness of these night markets transcends educational income and sub-cultural difference among locals and foreigners. The local authorities and federal government have a role to play in ensuring that these small businesses expand and proper while encouraging and integrating economic and social goals.

Study Framework

The dynamism of night market will be measured based on the night market environment (physical setting, market layout and facilities), local authorities' roles and support, the traders (diversity and density) and, the product (product display, packaging and labeling). The following study framework indicates the relationships among the variables to be examined:

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The research approaches for this study were qualitative research where a combination of exploratory and descriptive design was used to provide in-depth contextual data for the analysis of the dynamism of the night market. The data for this study were collected via observation and interviewed sessions with the visitors and customers who have visited the night market. The data collection technique in this study is using observation techniques to analyze on physical market setting, the traders and products. An analysis for all the information sources gathered from both the primary and secondary will be combined together.

Data Collection

The data were collected by one main researcher and three principle researchers. The survey was conducted on 24th September 2010 from 2.00 pm to 11.00 pm until the local authority clearing the night market waste. A personal face-to-face interview was conducted with Shah Alam Town Council a day before the site study. Personal face-to-face interviews length was 60 minutes with Shah Alam Town Council, traders (10-20 minutes) and customers (10-20 minutes). Data on the physical market setting, market atmosphere, traders and products are collected by using the observation method. Meanwhile data for local authority are collected using interview method which we had an appointment with the local authority, Shah Alam Town Council (MBSA) a day before the site study.

FINDINGS

Night Market Environment

The night market at Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam or also known as Taman Sri Muda's night market is only held once a week which is on Friday. It is operated on afternoon which is around 2pm until 11pm. According to Shah Alam Town Council, the night market Taman Sri Muda was the biggest night market in Shah Alam compared to other 26 night markets. Night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam is located at Jalan Cermat 25/56 and Jalan Saksama 25/39, south of Shah Alam City Centre. Figure 1 shows the location of Night Market Taman Sri Muda. Taman Sri Muda is a major township in Shah Alam, Selangor. This township is located south of Shah Alam City Centre. It starts to operate from 4.00 pm onward until 10.00pm onward depends on the flow of the customers. There are 27 of night markets that can be found in different towns in Shah Alam. The biggest night market in Shah Alam is in section 25 with the total of bay are 295 and total of traders are 132. There are a total of 295 bays that have been provided by Shah Alam Town Council. Most of the bays have been occupied by 132 traders and most of the trader rent more than one bay.

The Physical Setting

The physical setting of night market Taman Sri Muda is presented in "L" shape which mainly located at Jalan Saksama and Jalan Cermat. Night market consists of two parts. The first part of the night market is presented in a horizontal line that take placed in front of the new double-story shop bays with the length of 72 meter while the second part of the night market presented in a vertical line that take placed along the old four-story shop bays and new doublestory shop bays with the length of 165 m. Each bay has 2m x 3m size allowing the space of around 2m for customers to pass through. Night Market Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam presented in "L" shape which mainly located at Jalan Saksama 25/39 and Jalan Cermat 25/36. The gap between bays is 2 meter and all the lots were stacked to each other, there was no gap can pass through by the customers. Figure 1 shows the area map of Night Market Taman Sri Muda. There were two rows of old four stories shop bays located at the end of the night market area, most of the shops' owner were conducting car service while there were another two rows of new double stories shop bays located at the front of the night market area after the old four stories shop bays. The first row of the new double stories shop bays which mainly blocked by the night market were all closed for business at 5.00pm, except for the leftcorner "Restaurant Firdous Maju" which operated 24hours. There are few residents (double-story houses) living very close to the site which is located east of the night market. Other landmarks located along the Jalan Cermat 25/36 which can help to lead direction were Kentucky Fried Chicken used car seller, Neynon tom yam restaurant, Taman Sri Muda Primary School Two with a large green field. At the end of Jalan Cermat 25/36, there was a Shell petrol station located on the right side of the night market. Persiaran Budiman is the main road accessed to the night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam. There is a signboard stated in Malay "Anda Berada Di Kawasan Seksyen 25" and "Anda Sedang Memasuki Zon Bersih" which means "you are now in Section 25" and "you are entering clean zone". As the explanation stated on the board, Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam has been categorized into clean zone by the Office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia which was managed by the local authority, Shah Alam City Council (MBSA).

Market Area Layout

Around 3 pm the Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam (MBSA) enforcement officers will park their van at the middle of the U-turn junction to make sure all the vehicles will go straight without slowing their car to make a U-turn at the middle road. There are two major entrances to the night market which located along the Persiaran Budiman and Jalan Saksama. Customers who came using cars or motorcycle can only access the night market area by taking the last junction along the Persiaran Budiman. The second entrance which is located at the end of the Jalan Saksama 25/39 was seldomly used by the customers because it was normally taken by the surrounding communities to access the night market from the residential areas.

Market Area Layout

Around 3 pm the Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam (MBSA) enforcement officers will park their van at the middle of the U-turn junction to make sure all the vehicles will go straight without slowing their car to make a U-turn at the middle road. There are two major entrances to the night market which located along the Persiaran Budiman and Jalan Saksama. Customers who came using cars or motorcycle can only access the night market area by taking the last junction along the Persiaran Budiman. The second entrance which is located at the end of the Jalan Saksama 25/39 was seldom used by the customers because it was normally taken by the surrounding communities to access the night market from the residential areas.

Flora Sdn Bhd takes the responsibility to maintain the cleanliness of Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam. It is the largest solid waste management company in Malaysia. There was a signboard located next to the residential area to display the schedule of waste manage Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam by the Alam Flora Company. Figure 2 shows the layout of the Night Market Taman Sri Muda. This night market layout is well traders are facing each other allowing customers to pass in the midd items. Traders are placed according to the product.

Facilities

The parking facilities in the night market Taman Sri Muda are divided into four sections. The first section is located at Pesiaran Budiman. Most of the car and motorcycle riders stopped and parked their motorcycle along this area. The second section is located at Jalan Tekun which is the main entrance to enter the night market; there are a total of twenty two parking bays available along the shop lots. The third section is located at Jalan Cermat while the fourth section is located at Jalan Saksama. There was a parking space that can accommodate more than thirty vehicles in estimation which is located at Jalan Saksama 25/39 that is facing the front of the old four stories shop lots, but it looks slightly messy because there was no "yellow parking box" drawn on the road. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted during the night market operation hour which start from 4.00pm onwards until 10.00pm onwards as long as their vehicles didn't block any traffic condition, so this is what the local authority can do in term of the parking facilities.

The public transportation system in Malaysia comprises of bus, railway and taxi services. In Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam, there are four bus stations available. There are three bus stop located along the Persiaran Budiman while there was another bus station located in front of the Taman Sri Muda Primary School Two. Rapid KL is the company that has been entrusted to provide an integrated public transport system consisting of rail and bus services in Klang Valley. It is 100% government-owned company under the Ministry of Finance. With the full air conditioned bus service provided by the Rapid KL Company, people can easily access to the night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam by taking Rapid KL Bus No (T528, U63 and U64). The buses were passing by every thirty minutes depends on the traffic condition, the operating hour started from the early morning at 6.00am onwards until 11.00pm. Taxi is another alternative choices of public transportation accessed to the night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam. It provided 24 hours service but there could be an additional 50% surcharge after 12.00am midnight until the next morning at 5.00pm. The rate was counted based on the journey distance.

Local Authority Roles and Support

Night Market Taman Sri Muda is under the jurisdiction of Shah Alam City Council (MBSA). Night Market is organized under the Department of Licensing and Enforcement. The departments are divided into two general divisions: Licensing Division and Enforcement Division. There are 33 employees worked under the licensing department and 256 worked under the enforcement division. Under the Head of Licensing Division there are few services or supports provided by the Shah Alam City Council for the development of the night markets. For those traders who want to sell foods or beverages in the night market, they are compulsory to attend training sessions provided by the Shah Alam City Council, one of the training sessions regularly conducted by the Shah Alam City Council is called "Food Handle Course". In this training session, traders will be trained on how to serve the foods and beverages in a hygienic way and how to set up their stove in a proper layout to avoid any injury or accident. Any applicants that wish to sell their product at a night market have to apply a license with a permit fee of RM 4 for each bay. License fee must be paid at least once in every 6 to 12 months and license renewal must be made before the expiry date. Other requirements are the traders must be Malaysian citizen, 18 years and above any license is not transferable, permanent resident passport holder or any other citizenship are not allowed to operate a stall at the night market, traders' license holder are not allowed to lease out to the third parties, if not their license will be revoked. The City Council may revoke the license if the license holder is not present at the stall four times in a row without valid reasons. The trader have to pay RM6 for the garbage disposal of each month for each bay, they are not allowed to leave the product at the stall after the operating hours (4 pm to 10 pm). The traders are not allowed to allocate any tables or chairs for their customers at their bay. All the product sells at night market is only for cash and carry.

The Customers

Table 1 show the total of customers who came to Taman Sri Muda Night Market. The number of customers is based on the field study which was conducted on 24 September 2010 from 2.00 pm until 11.00 pm. There are total of 7719 customers came to night market with majority customer is Malay with 5226.

The Traders

The Traders' Diversity

The traders' diversity level was measured by the traders' ethnic background who participating at the night market. The combination of variety colorful cultures and custom due to its multiracial composition bring an image of "One Malaysia". In the night market at Taman Sri Muda, you will realized the traders were combined from different ethnic background and each of the ethnic will offered different type of products according to the origin of their culture. Therefore, you will experienced and join in a "big friendly family". Table 2 shows the breakdown of traders' ethnic group. The total of traders is 132 with the majority being Chinese which dominated 53%, followed by 40% Malay and 7% Indian.

The night market unites a collection of vendors at one location for one day and then as the event closes. Table 3 shows the breakdown types of product and breakdown of traders. There were 132 traders mainly selling a variety of products such as vegetable, fruit, fish, meat, chicken, accessories, and ready food. The majority of the traders selling cooked food and clothes. In general, the products offered at night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam can be divided into 16 types of products. There were 26% of the traders were involved in selling cooked foods which included the items consist of rice, noodle, hamburger, snack and cake, followed by 22% of the traders which were involved in selling clothes while another 9% of the traders were involved in selling variety type of fruits while the rest traders offered other goods such as beverages, vegetables, ladies accessories, personal and household items, shoes, seafood, groceries, dry foods, toys, beef, poultry, eggs and hand phone accessories.

The Traders 'Density

The traders' density level was measured by the number of traders participating at the night market. At the night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam, there were 295 lots for traders of which 285 or 97% were already occupied with licensed traders. The vacant lots were normally take over by the next trader to extend their stall or just leaving it empty. Table 4 shows the traders' density. The first trader selling fruits and vegetable came at 2.30 pm to set up their stall and the last trader came in at 7.00 pm. Traders usually come early to unload their product in order to avoid traffic, some of them started to arrive as early as around 3.30 pm until 5.30 pm, however, 4.30 pm is the peak hour for the traders to set up their stall with 43 traders who set up their stalls at the same time. During loading, the trader will parked his or her vehicle (car, van or lorry) behind the trader lot, followed by unloading the items from the vehicle. Next, they will open the big colorful umbrella which fit the size of their trader lot, and then they will set up the booths and lighting up the stoves (cooked foods traders). Then, they lay out all the items and wares on the booths. It took around 30 minutes to complete the whole working cycle. It is very difficult for those late traders to unload since the space leftbetween traders facing each other varied from 2.50m to 3m therefore they have to pass squeezing their track among traders who already made the set up. As early at 2.30 pm, the place was bustling with traders' activities. The traders will start turning down their business from 10.30 pm - 11.30 pm, where the last trader selling house goods was the last stall closed at 12.00 am.

The Product

The Product Display

There are varieties of way the traders can display their product. The most common way is to display the items in a straight line; the purpose is to enable their customers to choose the items that already packed into small portion. For those traders who selling clothes, they prefer to divide all the clothes into three sections according to the selling price, and then the traders displayed their items into three vertical lines, the reason is to provide enough space for their customers to choose the clothes without blocking the street. Some of the modern traders will choose to display their items on the lorry that been modify in order to save their time to set up and close the stalls. The traders will park their vehicle at the centre of the trader lot, so the customers can use the leftor right space to select items. In Night Market Taman Sri Muda, the "L" shape display method was adopted by the end corner traders, followed by the traders who selling fruits, they displayed the items into two horizontal rows, the front row (short) normally used to display some promotion items to attract the interest of customers while there was another row (long) at the back to allow the customers continues choosing items behind the front row. Traders who selling vegetables mostly displayed all the items in "U" shape, followed by putting a small booth to display some promotion items to attract the view of customer at the front center, this display method can maximize the usage of the full trader lot and enable to display variety type of items. Figure 3 shows six types of display layouts into graphic design.

The Packaging

Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use. Packaging also adopted at Night Market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam. Packaging was normally adopted by the fruit traders in the night market, since the items (fruits) that they selling were cheap and sold in a fix amount. The traders put a plastic bag to cover the old basket and then put the fruits on top of the basket. The purpose of doing so is to reduce the working cycle and at the same time to decorate their booth with attractive color. Customers normally will purchase small quantity of these items such like chili, carrot because there were often used in cooking and the trader might feel hard to sell out all of their stocks since vegetable is kind of perishable item. Therefore, they used small transparent plastic bag to pack all these "un-famous" items into small portion, and then they displayed it with an attractive price label.

The Products Label

Labels can be can be defined as new marketing way used by traders to encourage potential buyers to purchase the product. At the same time, it can bring a clear message or information to the customers. Most of the traders at night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam also adopted price label as their marketing skill. The traders who sell the beverages prefer to tag the price list on a piece of transparent plastic bag, and then they stack it in front of the container. The idea as this labeling method is clear to bring important information to the consumer and it maintained the cleanliness of booth and showed attractive colors of different type of beverages. Price strategic was common in night market, where there were so many customers approached themselves at this booth. There are other methods adopted such as price label printed on bunting, voice recording and play back by loud speaker, and other to bring their information to their customers.

CONCLUSION

Night market is a trading place during evening and includes small business for a variety of low-price products, cooked food, local products, fashionable products, diverse food and beverages, and distinctively flavored Malaysian local delicacies. Night market in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam holds the attraction of being a suitable stop to carry wide range of consumer commodities from food to non-food items. The strategic location of the night market by selftransportation or public transportation provides a convenience for the visitors and customers in terms of accessibility to the night market. Through the environment analysis on the physical market setting, market atmosphere, and traders and products, Night Market Taman Sri Muda can help the traders to identify the opportunity to develop self-confidence, sharpen their business and marketing skills.

References

References

Su-Hsin Lee, Shu-Chen Chang, Jing-Shoung Hou, and Chung-Hsien Lin. (2008). Night market

experience and image of temporary residents and foreign visitors, International Journal of

Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 2 (3), pp. 217-233.

Hsieh, A., & Chang, J. (2006). Shopping and Tourist Night Markets: A Case in Taiwan. Tour

Manage , 27(1), pp. 138-45.