You would expect a bookstore to be the last place to struggle with spelling and grammar, yet that is exactly what landed BookXcess in hot water.
Malaysia's book retailer apologised for spelling and grammatical errors on a signboard at their newly opened outlet in 118 Mall, Kuala Lumpur. The apology came two days after a visitor highlighted the mistakes on social media, as well as the bookstore's initial response.
The incident began when a visitor pointed out an error on the signboard and shared a post about it on Threads on November 01.
"Hi @bookxcess, congrats on the new opening at 118 mall! by the way, your sign should say 'stationery'", they wrote, referring to the word being misspelled as "stationary".
Other social media users soon pointed out another error on the same signboard, which read "BOOK ARE JUST THE BEGINNING" instead of "BOOKS ARE JUST THE BEGINNING".
However, less than two hours after the original post, BookXcess replied with what appeared to be a tongue-in-cheek response.
"We are not a reading nation. This is what happens when we are not. BookXcess' core mission is to change that. Apologies as we never had the chance to grow up with books", they wrote.
The reply prompted mixed reactions. While some appeared to understand the humour, others criticised the bookstore's response, interpreting it as rude and sarcastic. Some felt the bookstore could have simply thanked the visitor for pointing out the mistakes and acknowledged that they would be corrected.
In a follow-up reply on November 03, the bookstore addressed the criticism and apologised for how they had handled the situation.
"We wanted to wait until the sign had been corrected before responding. While our earlier reply came across as dismissive, that wasn't how we wanted to handle things, and we're sorry to everyone we disappointed. And to @nfdinaa, thank you for bringing this to our attention", they wrote.
The bookstore also offered the visitor a trolley full of books of their choice as a gesture of appreciation".
Defending champions Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan suffered only their second first-round defeat of the season after crashing out of the Kumamoto Masters in Japan against a Japanese pair featuring familiar nemesis Chiharu Shida on Tuesday.
The world No. 4 failed to capitalise on a promising start, going down 18-21, 21-13, 21-14 to Shida and her new partner Ririna Hiramoto in the opening hurdle of the Super 500 event.
Coincidentally, their only previous opening-round defeat this season also came on Japanese soil, at the Japan Open in Tokyo, in July.
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