MMDA to Shopping Malls: No Weekday Sales for 2017

Itching to buy something on sale? Then you may have to wait it out until the weekend arrives to buy your favorite discounted items at the mall.

Starting this year, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will only allow mall owners and operators to conduct their mall-wide sales on Saturdays and Sundays.

The No Weekday Sale, which was introduced last October 2016 by the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic (I-ACT), will now be implemented for the entire year.

According to the MMDA, their studies reveal that vehicular traffic slows down to 5 kph whenever a mall along a major road holds a ‘sale’ event.

“There are 16 malls along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue, sabay-sabay sila magse-sale, no coordination [with the MMDA>,” Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Tim Orbos said.

He also added that mall owners are not against the plan, and they're willing to give their full cooperation as a way to help minimize traffic congestion.

“This only shows that everybody wants to be part of the solution. As agreed upon during the meeting, there shall be no conduct of sales and other crowd-drawing events during weekdays and deliveries shall only be from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. the next day,” Orbos stated.

The No-Weekday Sale is only applicable for mall-wide scales. However, individual stores and tenants inside these establishments are still required to coordinate with the I-ACT before they can conduct their own sale.

MMDA also invited mall operators and owners to take part in enforcing traffic management within their vicinities. Their mall security personnel will also undergo training on traffic management to prepare for the No Weekday Sale policy implementation.

“We will train them on traffic management and have them deputized so they can issue traffic violation receipts to erring motorists within their areas of jurisdiction. This will also be a big help for us to control traffic in these areas,” Orbos stated.