Muslim consumers little convinced if KK Mart should be forgiven after “Allah” print on socks furore

IT seems that even a teary apology from the KK Super Mart group founder Datuk Seri Dr K.K. Chai himself may not be convincing enough “to buy the heart” of Muslim consumers who are enraged by the “Allah” inscription on socks previously sold at its Sunway outlet.

On the back of UMNO Youth’s call for a boycott, the one-liner tweet by opposition slant Malay language news portal Malaysia Gazette (@MalaysiaGazette) which if translated reads “KK Mart apologises, don’t boycott us” seems to have lukewarm effect judging from its 1.1 million views at the time of writing.

This is despite netizen F L Y (@malays1anreject) and humble (@hafirunisa) having praised the convenience store management for its swift response to apologise and that the matter was due to an oversight of its supplier.

Although KK Super Mart’s top management had done a praiseworthy job by apologising, netizen myariffx (@myariffx) proposed that that it “aggressively does charitable deeds for the less fortunate”.

But many netizens went on to question the failure of KK Super Mart’s QC (quality control) team to do its job.

One netizen suggested that an oversight could have easily happened as the convenience store chain employed many foreigners who might not be apt with “local meaning of words” or even “some Malay supervisors who didn’t do a proper QC check”.

Quite a few highlight that the “power of boycott” as evident in the food & beverage (F&B) sector coupled with the fact that “buying power is in the hands of consumers” have cast fear on many retailers.

On the hindsight, a netizen teased why were there Muslim KK Super Mart staff during yesterday’s (March 16) media briefing session and if they “were only there to gain sympathy” from Muslim consumers.

Elsewhere, another netizen lamented that he prefers to support competitor Speedmart 99 given that KK Super Mart tends to hire many foreigners as opposed to them former “who only employs locals even though he’s a Chinese”. – March 17, 2024

Main pic credit: The Star

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