The minister of domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism said some KR1M shops were located far in the interior of rural areas while their large sizes resulted in high operating costs.
“Bintulu (MP Tiong King Sing) acknowledged that the first KR1M (initiative) failed. Failure was due to various reasons which we discovered in discussions with the operators.
“The first reason was non-strategic locations far in the rural areas, which resulted in high costs of operation. That put the operators under pressure,” he said in a written reply in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Hamzah said a new KR1M strategy was being drawn up which would employ cooperation with large companies under the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS).
“Our new strategy will embrace discussions with not just one or two operators but involve cooperation with many small, medium and large companies, including multinationals.
“This effort is aimed at reducing the cost of goods sold in the domestic market,” he said.