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Iconic Johor Bahru KFC Outlet At Holiday Plaza Closing After 38 Years

Another Covid-19 casualty.

Another Covid-19 casualty.

Another Covid-19 casualty.

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Those who frequent Johor Bahru would likely have been to Holiday Plaza. The mall in Jalan Dato Sulaiman is popular with Singaporeans for its hair and nail salons, massage parlours and mobile accessories stores. The KFC outlet there is also famous; its signature red facade is so distinctive that it’s designated as a Grab pickup and drop-off point.

1 of 4 It’s closing after 38 years

Unfortunately, the restaurant will be closing on January 31, according to a Facebook post by fellow Holiday Plaza tenant Specsaving Optical. The optical shop wrote: “KCF Holiday Plaza will close for business after 31st January'2021 [sic]. Many says [sic] this is the first KFC opened in JB. Along with McDonald's and Pizza Hut when Holiday Plaza opened in 1983 [sic].”



  • 2 of 4 It served better fried chicken than other KFC outlets

    Specsaving Optical added that the Holiday Plaza KFC branch has “way better” fried chicken than other outlets, and its food used to be served on old-school white dinner plates (though as far as we know, the outlet has since switched to using paper trays in the past few years).

  • 3 of 4 Covid-19 made Holiday Plaza a ghost town

    No reason was given for the closure, but Johor — including Holiday Plaza — has been hit hard by a dearth of tourists since Singapore and Malaysia closed their borders due to the Covid-19 outbreak. A hairstylist at Kazoku Hair Salon at Holiday Plaza told 8days.sg that they have lost as much as “90 per cent” of their customer base, which had mainly comprised Singaporeans.

    The mall’s anchor tenant, Parkson department store, also closed down last October after operating for 35 years there. Perhaps the final nail in the coffin for KFC was Malaysia’s latest round of Movement Control Order (MCO 2.0), which prohibits dine-ins at eateries after a recent surge in coronavirus cases.

  • 4 of 4 McDonald’s outlet at the mall also closed… temporarily

    Meanwhile the fate of another fast food giant in the mall, McDonald’s, is hanging in the balance too. While it had temporarily closed last October, it announced via its Facebook page that it has reopened and will continue to offer food delivery through the MCO. Here’s hoping that the McOutlet survives Covid-19.

    Click here to read more about 40 well-known F&B establishments in Singapore that closed down in 2020.

    Photos:
    Google Maps/ Facebook

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