The offline age: The independent Kuala Lumpur retail spaces bringing the joy back to shopping

In most respects The Holiday Shop, aka Snackfood 2.0, seemed completely at odds with the original concept. It’s in the city centre, tucked into the lobby of KLoé Hotel, with a much smaller footprint. But if you’ve browsed the shelves there, you’ll know that somehow, Chong has retained the original spirit of Snackfood in this pocket-sized iteration. “Constraints can be very clarifying. When you have less space, you have to choose very carefully what to put inside,” she says. “Each item had to be special, meaningful and also ‘profitable’. I care about the storescape: how things are placed, how people walk around the shop, and how the light and materials make the space feel. In the end, the small size became a good thing. It helped us create a cosy and calm place where people can feel like they are stepping into a little holiday, even for a short moment.”

When we dropped by to shoot Chong and The Holiday Shop, the KLoé lobby was alive with guests checking in and out, suppliers making deliveries, remote workers enjoying the sofas for a spot of laptop time. Passers-by couldn’t help but be drawn into the tactile displays and colourful objects. “The curation for The Holiday Shop starts with a feeling. I ask myself if an item makes someone feel curious, happy, or calm. To me, a holiday is not just about going somewhere far away. It is about a feeling inside. So every product in the shop needs to carry that feeling in some way. I get ideas from traveling, talking to artists and makers, and noticing how different materials and objects make me feel. After many years of running Snackfood and talking to customers, I have learned to trust my gut feeling. When something feels right, it usually connects with other people too. For me, retail now is a careful balance of heart and science.”

Over at Dia, Aisha Hassan and her team went through the same process, but in reverse. After years of building a presence online, Dia Guild opened its doors in Bangsar Village: a small but fully-formed space lined with Dia’s signature curation of artisanal products from around the region. “I think what Dia stood for five years ago is something so deeply analogue,” Aisha tells us. “The emphasis was so heavy on handmade craftsmanship, traditional techniques, things that took a long time to make because they were worth it. People that we know personally who have spent six months tying with their own hands.”

Dia Guild is a compact curation of wonders, and even in this space, Aisha’s team found ways to bring it to life with activations and popups. In that sense, Dia Space, which officially opened its doors at the beginning of the year, is just an extension of the Dia spirit. “Coming to the Dia Space has almost felt like going back to our roots. And we just have a bit more room to experiment now.”

The Dia Space stands in Medan Pasar, stretching out luxuriously to fill a whole floor above the popular KLCG bakery. High, beamed ceilings and shuttered windows lend the space charm and a tangible reminder of the area’s history. “The idea was to have a home for a rotating series of pop-ups, community events and arts. It all stays true to our mission of supporting Malaysian and Southeast Asian creators,” Aisha tells us. “The Dia Space is really a home for these local and regional creators to experiment on their own terms. Whether that's a retail pop-up, whether that's a community event, whether that's a screening, an arts event. We just want to provide a flexible space for them. With the events we've done here so far, book clubs, journaling workshops, people really want face-to-face connection. The world is more digital, which means we're more connected, but we're also more starved for real connection.”

To spend an hour at Dia Space is to feel encouraged that, perhaps, KL is doing alright. We’re not in a mall, there’s no carpark, and at the time of our shoot the city is gripped in a week of record-breaking traffic but here in the middle of old KL, people are still flowing. Students wander in, passers-by, office workers on their lunch break—there is a steady stream of people passing through the space, inspecting the rails of clothing, looking at the art, asking questions. “I think with retail as a whole, it has to move beyond the transaction, right?” Aisha says. “People want experience. People want somewhere that's giving them something back beyond just product.

That's what we’re really trying to figure out and hone in on with the programming at this space. I think the idea of what value is has really warped over the last few years, and we're trying to redefine that for ourselves. Whether it's the type of objects we carry or the experiences we give. Because in a pay-to-play landscape, it really ostracises a lot of people who can’t pay to play. It's amazing to have somewhere where we can just hang and meet people and talk.”

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