I'm not sure about you but if i were investing in a shop lot, I would certainly have a decent understanding of the access to the location and an understanding of the surrounding area's demographic. I'm sure they would have done their research too.
I'm not sure if you know the area at all as you are wrong about pretty much all your statements in terms of accessibility. Having lived in the area for over 20 years - i can say for sure that either:
a) if you know how to get around or
b) just use Waze like most people who aren't familiar with the area, will..
..it's fairly easy.
If it isn't obvious already (I personally think it is), all the developers need to do is to put up a sign before flamingo hotel saying '<--- M City' to direct the ones who missed the first turning to turn into the second, and indeed larger, road.
1. Those coming from the tesco side of MRR2 would come to the traffic light under the bridge, go across (heading towards flamingo hotel) and may turn left at the first turning - yes this is the small access road you speak of and if it's too difficult to do this [it can be difficult if there are a lot of cars coming from the risda/suzi's corner turning], then there is another big road before flamingo hotel which you can turn into which leads you right back to either the front or rear entrance of M City. This will be the primary access, I reckon, for MRR2 users.
2. Those coming from Ulu Kelang side of MRR2 can make a LEGAL U-turn at the traffic light (same junction, from the opposite side) parallel to suzi's corner, and take the major turning before flamingo hotel which again, leads right to M City's front and rear entrances.
3. Those coming from ampang baru would just need to go across from Korea town at the intersection (instead of left towards jalan ampang) and take a left at the end (now heading towards ampang puteri) and take another left and you end up at the legal U-turn as situation number 2.
4. Users from KL can either use
i) jalan ampang to get to m-city, which is absolutely fine during non-peak hours/sundays
ii) use jalan ampang hilir to avoid the jam (and you end up in situation 1, at the intersection heading towards suzi's corner)
or, as I prefer
iii) use the AKLEH from the city centre and take the final exit to end up in situation 3 (heading towards ampang puteri) or the penultimate exit and a couple of turns to end up in situation 2.
In addition, the final exit of the DUKE for those coming from hartamas, ttdi, bandar utama side for whatever reason, comes right out on jalan ulu kelang and you end up in situation number 2.
So i'm not sure exactly what you mean by poor accessibility. I would probably say the complete opposite.
No, M City's survival is likely not to be based on Village grocer, (although it's a big plus) as all the other retail lots have already been taken... I'm not sure how much more evidence you want in terms of the retail lots - though I have some doubts over the high price of the apartment lots (which, mind you, are ~97% sold), if you know this area of ampang at all, the accessibility is actually incredible. Just don't do something silly like try use jalan ampang at 6pm to get to KLCC. Use the AKLEH instead.
Fantastic traffic guidelines for everyone, but there are already enough supermarkets and shops before they spend time studying how to get to M City.
M city just doesn't have what it takes to draw crowd from the already mature malls, supermarkets and shops nearby which situated along jalan AMPANG and MRR2, and they do not need traffic guidelines to reach there, perfect visibility and accessibility.