This is what 1 Utama looks like when it’s not ruining everyone’s weekend.
Sunday at the mall is a time-honoured tradition, and anything that disrupts that weekend ritual feels like a calamity.
The 1 Utama Shopping Complex doled out a little taste of dystopia yesterday when it experienced a mall-wide blackout at 3.15pm, shutting down retail outlets, eateries and forcing patrons out of its cineplexes.
Restaurant manager Elaine Chia told The Star Online said she was upset that business was disrupted. “Since it is a Sunday, there were many patrons but most of them decided to leave immediately. It became very hot and humic as air-conditioning was cut off,” she said.
Kensim, 29, said he managed to catch only the first five minutes of the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past before the screen went blank.
“We waited for about 15 minutes in the cinema before someone came in and told us that the shopping mall was experiencing a blackout.
“Many people demanded refunds for the movie but we decided to leave,” he said.
Traffic on roads in the general vicinity of the mall slowed to a crawl as patrons scrambled out of the complex all at once.
A spokesman for the complex said the incident was not caused by the mall’s internal electrical system.
“Some other parts of Bandar Utama also experienced the power disruption,” he said.
The power was gradually restored at about 4.55pm using a generator.
