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The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Closer Look at the Night Market Traders’ Experience in Penang, Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic which spread around the world evidently has impacted various sectors in Malaysia including the economic sector. Many that profoundly affected by this ongoing pandemic are small local business owners, such as night market traders. Therefore, this study aims to identify the problems as well as the impacts faced by the night market traders in Penang during the pandemic. A total of 15 informants were recruited to engage in an in-depth interview by purposive sampling. Findings indicate that there is a drop in sales and profits for a significant number of informants. The problems that have been identified are the reopening status and diversion of night market location, the increase of night market site rental fee and essential items price for business, lacking of marketing promotion by organisers have made the public unaware of the night market reopening status, issues related to standard operating procedure (SOP) as well as acceptance of government assistance initiative. Even though online sales platform has become a popular alternative by a large number of informants throughout the pandemic, the return and profit received have not reached a good proportion. All in all, the COVID-19 pandemic has produced various daunting problems that have had multiple impacts on night market traders. Restructuring or remodeling of business strategies should be done by the night market traders to adjust to the new norm as advocated by the government, as well as to minimize the risk of profit loss.