If you frequent Bukit Bintang, you may be familiar with a bright blue shop in front of Lot 10 Shopping Mall that sells Arabian desserts. And if you had planned to visit the store, you’ll be disappointed to hear that it has been shut down by authorities.
Zaitoun Food is a chain store specialising in Arabic and Turkish desserts and is known for its kunafa and ice cream. Their Bukit Bintang store is especially notorious amongst netizens for having a marketing ploy where customers can dance in exchange for free desserts. However, the publicity stunt had many netizens angered as they felt that many women, even Muslimahs in hijabs, would shamelessly dance for freebies.
While that may sound like the reason why the dessert shop was closed, the real reason was a lack of a proper business licence. According to the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) official Facebook page, the store was not licensed to conduct any business activity and only possessed a temporary entertainment licence. In addition, their staff were apparently foreigners without legal permits.
The closure had many netizens cheering, saying people could no longer throw away their pride and dance for a free dessert. However, some questioned how the store could stay in business for so long if they had no permit, given that authorities had visited the store during its opening.
While Zaitoun did not directly address the closure, they did post on TikTok to thank customers for their patronage – but what do you think about the closure?
Sources: TikTok (1)(2)(3), Twitter, Facebook
Adleena contributed to this article.
