Iconic McDonald’s in Sunrise Penang is CLOSING! But WHY??

OMG did you guys know that the McDonald’s on Sunrise along Gurney Drive in Penang is closing?! YES, that iconic outlet!

First, we saw some people posting it up on the Penduduk Pulau Pinang & Seberang Perai group yesterday. And then Penang Kini’s Facebook page posted the news about it today. It’s only been a little over 24 hours since they posted it, and both posts have already been shared 680 times.

But WHY are they closing such an iconic outlet like this? And how do our Penang buddies feel?

Penangites have been posting up their memories of McDonald’s Sunrise

Needless to say, the reactions on social media have been very, very sad. People talked about the memories they’ve had at this McDonald’s, like…

And here are more nostalgic comments from our ex-intern Letitia, who’s from Penang…

From the 90s to 2000s, everyone has such fond memories of it and one commenter even said she hopes the management would reconsider.

So much love, yet why do they wanna close this outlet?

CILISOS.MY contacted McDonald’s for a statement:

“We have taken the opportunity to take stock of our business and to move forward from a position of strength. This particular store is due for closure after carefully assessing its financial contribution to the overall business.

More importantly, all our affected employees will be able to continue working in alternative store locations. We remain committed to our customers’ needs and look forward to serving them in our many other stores in Malaysia.” – statement from McDonald’s to CILISOS.MY

In other words, business not good lor. At least we know Penangites will still get to see the familiar faces from McDonald’s Sunrise at other outlets from now on.

For those of you who’ll have a hard time letting go, makan at McDonald’s every day and night la until their LAST DAY, which is 31 July according to our source. It will be missed!

There’s something about fast food restaurants that touches the hearts of Malaysians

McDonald’s, A&W, KFC and of course, our very own local Marrybrown… these are some of the pioneer fast food chains that masuk Malaysia. It was before the days of Carl’s Jr., Texas Chicken and Wendy’s etc. We love ’em because they are our cheap places to eat when we sudah pokai. At the same time, those burgers, fries, fried chicken, nuggets, golden fried stuff is such yum yum comfort food, that even when we’re loaded also we love to eat fast food.

It’s not just the food obviously, cos many of us have such heartwarming memories of makaning with friends and family in fast food restaurants, ponteng sekolah there, last-minute rushing up our college assignments, berdating and more. For a dose of nostalgia, watch these old Malaysian McDonald’s ads from the 80s!

Let’s not forget the freaking delivery number jingles that seriously get stuck in your head! (Yeah, we really kenot forget, even when we desperately try to get it out of our minds.) OMG and remember the madness which was the Minions Happy Meal free gift?… Malaysians practically destroyed several McDonald’s outlets when they were rushing to collect them! 😆

So.Many.Memories! Say whatever you want about fast food, but the culture means so much to average Malaysians.