M'sia woman Alice Chang quits as Indian festive wear store part-timer after 1 day, could be marketing stunt

Alice Chang, the woman who attracted attention and scrutiny after kissing a pretzel dough at Auntie Anne’s in Malaysia, recently took up another new job — in the retail clothing industry.

On Oct. 20, Indian festive wear brand Indya in Kuala Lumpur shared a TikTok video introducing Chang as their latest recruit.

However, her employment was yet again short-lived as the store announced her resignation after just one day.

@indya_my Happy Deepavali!!! Welcome to Indya Brickfields. Say “hello" to our new recruit SA Ms Alice Chang 👋🏻 We have new collections just arrived to make your festival more colourful!!! #indya #indyamy #indyakl #fashion #alicechang #indyajb #indyaklang #deepavali2024 #fashionkl ♬ พี่ชอบหนูที่สุดเลย (Speed Up) - PONCHET

First and last day at work

In the clip, Chang and two other shop assistants greeted viewers a "Happy Deepavali" and ended the video with a playful three-way heart gesture.

The video gained more than 465,000 views at the time of writing.

On her Instagram page, Chang also posted pictures of herself wearing the festive wear, and urged viewers to support Indya.

Quit after 1 day

In a subsequent post, the store announced that Chang had sent an email expressing her wish to resign just after midnight on Oct. 21.

In the statement, the store shared that Chang first approached them a week ago and the manager conducted an interview "initially unaware of her identity".

It was explained that they hired Chang on a part-time basis apparently with plans to "monitor her performance closely".

Claims she did not receive pay

The situation took another turn when Chang claimed on her Instagram that she had not received her day’s wage of RM80 (S$24).

She shared a WhatsApp message she sent to the shop owner, expressing her decision to resign.

In the message, Chang mentioned that her mother had pointed out the pay was insufficient given her needs and growing social media presence.

"I believe I can bring greater visibility and attention to ur shop, but I need to pursue opportunities that align better with my financial goals. Thank you for your understanding," she wrote.

Meanwhile, the shop said in their statement that they had "promptly paid" Chang at 9:11am on Oct. 21 via bank transfer after receiving her resignation notice at 12:45am that same day.

It is unclear if the entire exchange was part of a marketing campaign with Chang.

Online commenters pointed out that the messages supposedly sent by Chang were mostly grammatically correct and in English, and lacked the idiosyncratic textual tics that she is known for.

Chang's previous captions posted online used a mix of Chinese and English words, referred to herself in third person, and more often than not, did not use capitalised words.

More Alice Chang stories

Top photos from indya_my/TikTok and Alice Chang's Instagram