PETALING JAYA: The new regulation banning Chinese medicine shops from selling hard liquor is a bitter pill for many business owners to swallow.
“It is so difficult to do business already. When the GST was implemented, we had to struggle with the system. We are all old lah,” said the owner of a medicine shop based here, who only wanted to be known as Lim.
Lim, who has run the shop with his wife for the past 35 years, said he hoped the trade association would meet with the relevant parties to discuss the matter and clear up the confusion.
“It’s very strange lah. We already have a liquor licence. We just settled the GST, now this,” he added.
“I am hoping the associations will step in and solve the problem.”
This was echoed by medicine shop owner Hon Kam Seng, who said the medicines sold such as Yomeishu and DOM were “not for yamseng”.
“They are medicines. But if people raise a fuss I will just stop selling, I don’t want the pening kepala (headache). The profit margin on these medicines is not very high,” he said.
He has been running his shop for 31 years, and while he has not received any letters, he claimed that some of his friends had received them.
A trader known only as Kuah said that if medicine shops suffered, wholesalers would too, while Chinese herbalist Yeong who also sells alcohol such as Smirnoff vodka and Sahip brandy said he was prepared for the consequences.
“If they close me down, close lah. I don’t want to talk about it,” he said.
Chain herbal store Eu Yan Sang’s SS2 branch also said they had not received any letters and did not know about the directive.
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