SERIAN: The worsening haze has more than halved kuih seller Rosni Julaihi’s daily takings as fewer shoppers venture into the open-air Serian Wet Market.
The 57-year-old trader from Kampung Sorak Melayu said her sales had fallen from more than RM500 on a good day to between RM200 and RM300 since the haze intensified.
“The difference is significant because fewer people are going out, and business has continued to slow as the haze worsened,” said Rosni, who has been trading at the market for about five years.
The market was noticeably quiet at about 9 am today (Sept 5), although the number of visitors grew slightly towards 10am without reaching its usual weekend bustle.
Trader Catherine Kathy Michael, 53, said shoppers increasingly preferred enclosed supermarkets where they could avoid prolonged exposure to the polluted air.
The trader of six years said weekends and the ongoing school holidays had brought some customers back, but overall business remained below normal.
“When the API rises, fewer people come out, especially because this is an open-air market. We still hope customers will come because we have goods to sell, but the number is definitely lower than usual,” she said when met by reporters.
Catherine said supplies continued to arrive at normal prices, although locally grown produce such as cucumbers had become scarcer after prolonged hot weather damaged crops.
At Stall A11, 86-year-old Tong Nyian Tan said the decline was also evident despite having weathered changing business conditions over approximately 30 years at the market.
The trader from Kampung Muhibah said fewer customers had visited since the haze began, with the market often emptying by noon even though he maintained his usual operating hours from 7 am to 12.30 pm.
Meanwhile, Management and Science University student Nur Shafiqah Hamidi, 27, said her family-run Stall G8 had remained open despite the emergency declaration.
The business, inherited from her late grandmother and restarted in May last year, is now managed alongside her studies.
“Yesterday’s haze was much worse because visibility was very poor, but we remained open after the council informed us that the market could continue operating,” she said.
