Mould Found Growing on Leather Goods and Cinema Seats in Shopping Malls

By Ammar Haziq  •  12 May 2020 in News

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As Ian Malcolm once said in Jurassic Park, “Life will find a way”.

It’s good news for businesses as they can finally reopen since the first phase of the Movement Control Order took effect 50 days ago. However, some will be tasked with extra work as mould has appeared on merchandise at a shopping mall in Pulau Tikus, Penang, as reported by The Star.

A travel and cold wear store owner, who wanted to be known as Chong, said it could due to the humidity. His shop had been closed since the start of MCO. “As the mall temperature depends on the air conditioning, sometimes it may be humid when the cool temperature suddenly rises. This causes a sudden increase in water vapour in the surrounding air,” said the 47-year old.

Mould was found growing on leather goods such as wallets, backpacks and handbags. “It makes the products look less attractive but it does not affect their function. All we did was use a bit of oil and polish them clean with a cloth,” he told The Star at his shop.

In the same shopping mall, another wallet and bag seller who wanted to be known as Lai, 65, said most of her products were dusty. “Some products on the display rack had dust on them as we were unable to clean them when we were closed. Most of our other products are fine as we wrapped them in paper for storage before we closed for the MCO,”

“As most of our products are not pure leather and made of PU leather or PVC leather, they are less prone to mould,” she said. A shopping mall sales assistant who wish to be known as Saw, 51, said leather products with mould growing on them could be cleaned off easily with baby oil or furniture polish.

“Leather is durable and if you take care of it well, mould should not grow easily on it,” said Saw, who manages the leather wallet and bag section at the mall.

Other than leather goods, Facebook user Chong Andy posted a series of photos showing mouldy cinema seats, which has been shared over 3k times on the social media platform.

It can’t be confirmed which cinemas in Malaysia these mouldy seats belong to, but SAYS has confirmed that it does not belong to Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC).

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