A photograph of the mall’s empty centre atrium area has been shared over 600 times on Facebook since it was posted late last night.
“Why is it that the biggest celebration by the main ethnic group embracing the official religion of our nation only gets a corridor worth of celebration decoration?” asked Faten Rafie.
“It looks like the mall is in mourning,” she added.
Faten also questioned whether CapitaLand Mall Asia, the company managing the mall, deemed Aidilfitri unfit of “the beautiful celebration decorations that they are famous for”.
“The Winter Wonderland decor (for Christmas), the Chinese Courtyard of 20’s Shanghai for Chinese New Year…Every year they always try to outdo themselves.
“Yet when Aidilfitri comes, almost nothing. Maybe the demographic is not worthy in terms of revenue to them,” she added, saying that she, however, saw many Malays doing their Raya shopping there, “most with at least a couple of bagful of purchases”.
“I also notice that Deepavali does not get any recognition there either. Yet Valentine’s is really huge, with decors all over the malls.”
Faten said that she had enquired concerning the matter at the Queensbay Mall information counter, and was told that decorations were only planned for the corridor at the far end of the mall.
“Are we still in Malaysia?”
Major renovation
In a response posted on its Facebook page this evening, Queensbay Mall said there was no festive decoration in its centre atrium area like in previous years because “the centre atrium is undergoing a major renovation involving ceiling and flooring works in a few days’ time”.
“In its place, we have put up the Hari Raya decorations in the North Court on the ground floor of our mall this year.”
The management also promised to come up with a “grander Hari Raya decoration in the centre atrium of our mall next year after the renovation is completed”.
CapitaLand Mall Asia
According to its website, Queensbay Mall opened for business on Dec 1, 2006, and is currently one of the largest shopping malls on the island of Penang with a gross built up area of 2.5 million sq ft.
It is one of two malls in Penang owned and managed by CapitaLand Mall Asia, which has its headquarters in Singapore, with the other being the popular Gurney Plaza.
CapitaLand also owns and manages five other malls in Peninsula Malaysia, namely Sungei Wang Plaza and Melawati Mall in Kuala Lumpur, East Coast Mall in Kuantan (Pahang), and the Tropicana City Mall in Petaling Jaya (Selangor).
Malaysia is one of five countries in which the company has a presence, with the other four being Singapore, China Japan and India.