Sales promo leads to fracas as shoppers swarm to grab offers

SHAH ALAM: A promotional sale led to chaos after hundreds swarmed a shop, leading to the authorities being called in on Saturday (April 1).

Shah Alam OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Iqbal Ibrahim, in a statement Sunday (April 2), said the Saturday incident happened after the shop in Seksyen 7 here offered RM1 clothes to the first 100 customers, and free shirts for the following 50.

"It is estimated that around 500 people swarmed the shop for the promotional prices, leading to unrest and pushing amongst the group.

"At around 11.45am, the management stopped operations due to safety reasons as it could not control the number of visitors," he said.

He added that the public was advised to not be too emotional at such promotions.

"At the same time, business owners must be considerate and avoid creating promotions that could confuse the public to avoid similar situations from repeating," he said.

Videos of the rowdy crowds were uploaded onto social media pages, showing people shouting outside the shop's entrance.

Another showed people grabbing as many packages as they could once inside.