Hey there!
Salam...
My family and I arrived at Penang yesterday afternoon, and soon after we had rested for a couple of hours, we went out to check out the nearest shopping venues. Penang Times Square is the latest mall closest to the hotel we were staying at, which is the Sunway Hotel, Georgetown. It's new, and the inside of the building is impressive, but unfortunately, probably due to the current economic recession, there are only very few stores opened. I won't dwell so much on PTS, although it does house a departmental store as its anchor store (it's called Sunshine City...ummmm....whaaa?), but the one bright spot inside the otherwise dull shopping complex is this little store (I don't know even if you could call it that, as it's not really housed inside a shopping lot, rather outside in the open near the escalators), where the goods on first impression look like they are from Thailand (and then confirmed once you hear the store owner's voice). To sum it up, this store is cheap and sells quite pretty items, especially if you're into bohemian style of clothing like I am.
So, after maybe nearly an hour inside PTS (my mum spent some time shopping inside Sunshine City), we went off to Komtar, which is the oldest and most prominent landmark and shopping mall in Penang (where I bought my long awaited earphones), and then after a quick sweep of things around Komtar, we took the connecting bridge to Prangin Mall.
This is where the nightmare begins...
Prangin Mall is pretty okay. It's like Centre Point in KK, Sabah. Congested, filled with the old and new, etc etc. There's a Parkson Grand and a Giant Supermarket. And also stores that sells shoes.
My mum had been shoe shopping ever since her newly bought Bata Comfit sandals broke shortly after we arrived in Penang, and we found this one store called Stefeno on the 3rd floor of Prangin Mall. She went and bought a pair of sandals at a price of RM29.00. A bargain, yeah, but it came at a price.
As soon as we came back from shopping, I took the initiative to check whether or not my mum had accidentally bought a pair of sandals with pigskin lining. I had already cautioned her earlier to make sure the shoes she bought did not have pig skin materials. So, I went and had a close look at the sandals. I inspected with my eyes the main material of which the sandals were made of, and upon being certain that it was not pigskin material, I took one in my hand and closely looked at the inside lining of the strap. At first, nothing seemed visible but upon closer inspection, lo and behold...
the dreaded three dots came into view...
I verified it with my father, and he checked on the net to compare the pattern we see inside the shoe to the ones found on the net. There was a match. Tsk...tsk...tsk... I don't really want to dwell on such things, but let me just say, to avoid such things to happen, muslim consumers must be aware that not all products are free of pigskin material, and likewise, it is even more crucial for store owners to be alert and sensitive and label something like this on their display case; "PIGSKIN LINING: NOT FOR MUSLIMS''. Because some of them do know, the shoe is made of pigskin, but don't bother to warn customers. Such was the case with Stefeno. After my mum returned the sandals, the store owner said there was SP labelled on the shoebox. SP=Skin Pig. But, what is the use of that knowledge if they don't share with customers? And to store owners, don't just assume what your customers' race and religion is just by looking at them. In our case, probably because my family looks Chinese and this is Penang, they just assumed we were non-muslims. Be sensitive and alert, this is Malaysia after all.
For those who have no idea on how to identify pigskin:
1. Ask and verify with the store whether or not they sell shoes with pigskin lining. If they do, ask them to pint to you which shoes are made of said material so that you can avoid them.
2. As an extra precaution and if you don't trust the store owners, look for three indented dots. They almost look like a pin or needle has punctured the surface of the material. Most are aligned in a triangle shape, but some, such as in my mum's case, the dots were aligned in a straight line.
Peace.
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