Patron motives and perspectives of shopping malls’ attraction in Metropolitan Kuala Lumpur

Concurrent with moving toward high per capita income nation and modern life styles, the shopping malls, have increasingly become more attractive to most people, hence the fast mushrooming of shopping malls in Malaysia’s metropolitan Kuala Lumpur. This study aims to identify the factors and motives underlying patrons’ preferences of the shopping malls through correlation analyses between these two variables. Three Kuala Lumpur shopping malls were selected for the study, namely, the SOGO in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the Mid Valley Megamall in Petaling Jaya and the Berjaya Times Square in Bukit Bintang. A total of 150 patrons of these shopping malls provides the necessary data. Results revealed three clusters of patron motives shaping their preferences: the mall’s identity, patron socio-hedonism, and patron utilitarianism. Factor analyses further displayed three attraction factors; facility and comfortable atmosphere, store image and social activities. The results also showed the absence of significant difference between patron shopping’s motive and the attractiveness of the shopping malls, implying the imperative of shopping malls to always enhance their facilities, create more comfortable surroundings, strengthen positive public image and reputation regardless of actual patron motives.