Sunday, May 4, 2008

1Borneo Merchants

So far the preliminary list of tenants at 1Borneo looks promising. But i still think it is a shame there will still be no Carrefour, Tesco, Harvey Norman, Best Denki, Isetan etc. Instead we got this stupid Giant Hypermarket that always claim they are the cheap price leader in Malaysia which is bull. 

Then we also have HSL Circuit City and SenQ instead of Harvey Norman and Best Denki. Harvey Norman is an electronic store chain from Australia while Best Denki from Japan and both of them provide much better services than HSL Circuit City and SenQ. Harvey Norman and Best Denki also tend to have more LCD/Plasma display at their stores.

Tune Department Store is set to be one of the anchor tenants at 1Borneo. Tune Department Store is partly owned by Tony Fernandes, hence the name Tune Department Store. I am still wondering what kind of clothes are they going to sale. Whether it is going to the Parkson/Isetan/Robissons/Tang kind of clothes or Petaling Street's. Well, we're about to find out real soon.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, I'm not so optimistic about the Parkson... They don't do really well in Sabah since a long time ago....

By the way, do you know that SenQ is actually Seng Heng? They just change their name so that they could prey on customers with bigger wallets instead.

Isaac said...

Actually, Parkson was a very profitable company in the the 90s. Then everything changed in 1998 during the worldwide economy meltdown. Its parent company, Lion Group had a serious cash flow problem and was in the verge of liquidation. But they survived and started expanding fiercely outside Malaysia. Not sure how is their operation in Malaysia performing now but it is a great success in China. Parkson is the largest department store in both Malaysia and China.

I still remember the mass amount of people flocking into Parkson Ria at Karamunsing when i was still a little kid. After 1997, you can barely see people going into Parkson Ria anymore. Parkson Ria Karamunsing never returned to its glory.

Anyway, do you know there is still one big building under construction beside the KK Times Square office block ? It is also part of KK Times Square project, dubbed "The Mall". Parkson is a confirmed anchor tenant at "KK Times Square The Mall" once it's completed. Some people say the current Parkson Grand at Wawasan Plaza will eventually be shut down for business.

Currently Parkson has three flagship Parkson deparment stores in Malaysia. First one is Parkson KLCC, second Parkson Pavillion and third Parkson 1 Utama. All these three Parkson are VERY different from the regular Parkson Grands. Parkson KLCC, Parkson Pavillion and Parkson 1 Utama are selling high-end clothes/shoes/under garments that mostly have a price tag of RM100-RM500. I personally like Parkson Pavillion at Pavillion Shopping Centre in Bukit Bintang very much. I think the new Parkson here in Kota Kinabalu will be selling the same stuffs found at their flagship stores as Lion Group (Parkson's parent company) has publicly expressed they are focusing on the high-end market now which is good. We really need more choices of branded clothes here in Sabah, may be Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani. Not that i have a deep pocket to buy branded clothes but i believe the foreign tourists do. As well as the upper middle class Kota Kinabalu citizens. Besides, it is fun if i can once in a while, pretend to be a super rich person and window shop there. LOL !

Yes. I know SenQ is Seng Heng. Read it online before. Don't really like SenQ though. Still prefer Harvey norman and Best Denki. LOL !