More shops extend business hours due to heavy rain


JOHOR BARU: As the rainy season lingers, some businesses here are extending their operating hours to give customers more time to shop ahead of the Chinese New Year celebration.

Jayden Ng, 30, who manages a wholesale cookie store in Taman Sri Tebrau, said his shop began extending its operations by four hours two weeks ago.

“People tend to avoid shopping when it is raining heavily.

“While we still enjoy good sales for Chinese New Year, we noticed a smaller crowd since the rainy season started.

“To address this, we decided to extend our hours from 8am to 8pm to 8am until midnight now,” said Ng when met at his shop.

He said the extended hours helped boost sales for the shop, which also sells festive decorations.

“Many of our Singaporean customers prefer to shop at night to avoid getting stuck in traffic, since most of them shop here during the weekends,” Ng added.

Eva Wong, who runs a shop selling decorations and sewing materials, said she extended her hours to 10pm to accommodate more customers.

“We usually close at 8pm, but about a month before Chinese New Year, we decided to stay open until 10pm to meet the festive demand.

“This is something we have always done during major festivals, not just because of the rain.

“However, it has helped offset the effects of the wet weather, as people can visit after the rain stops,” she said.

Wong, 48, said sales remained relatively stable compared to previous years.

“There are fewer customers when it rains, but the crowd picks up as soon as the rain stops.

“The closer it gets to Chinese New Year, the more people come out, even during the rain, because they still need to buy decorations,” Wong said.

Florist Susan Choong, 35, said she keeps her shop open as long as there are customers although she doesn’t extend her opening hours.

“My shop usually closes at 8pm, but I stay open later if people are still buying flowers,” she said.

She said that while late-night shopping is uncommon, the ongoing rainy weather and the approaching Chinese New Year have brought in more customers at night.

“With the festival less than two weeks away and the rain persisting, I have been receiving more customers after sunset.

“The latest I have kept my shop open was until 10pm and I expect this situation to continue until Chinese New Year,” Choong said.

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business , rain , Chinese New Year , shop

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