nabilahouse

As promised, this is the second phase of my 2-part of Malaysian-style offline shopping tips and tricks. Another 3 tips as follows:

1. Start at top level

Most superstores will have 2 levels: (1) upper level for clothes, equipment, pots and pans, CDs, books, kids stuff, boxes, furniture (for some outlets) and other non-perishable items, and (2) lower level (or ground level) for food and groceries items, toiletries, cosmetics etc. Always start your shopping trip on the upper level. Pick everything that you want and go down to lower level from groceries shopping. The reason being they always put Customer Service center (where you can gift wrap and get your parking ticket validated here) at the lower level. So, you will save a trip of going back and forth on the escalator just to get you gift wrapped and your parking ticket validated (otherwise, you may have to pay for it).

1. Choose your counter wisely

So, you are done with your shopping spree and it is time to pay. Choose your counter wisely. Even though you have less than 10 items on your basket, do not go to the nearest so-called Express Counter if you see people lining up at that counter. Instead choose counter with less people waiting in line and wait for your turn. It happens all the time. The Express Counter usually the longest line during lunch time, everyone thinking that they get express checkout when it is actually longer to wait compared to the normal line. Sometimes they put in new cashier on the Express Checkout because less items to be checked out, less mistakes but new cashier usually slower that the experienced one.

1. Don’t forget your parking ticket

Lastly, after you have paid, go straight to the Customer Service counter (which is right outside the checkout machine) and get your parking ticket validated (for outlet that provide discounted parking fees, otherwise you can skip this part). If you forget to bring along the ticket, feel free to come back later to validate or just forget the discounted fees.

Okay, I think that will be enough tips and tricks for shopping at Malaysian supermarkets. By the way, these info are generic in nature, it does not point specifically to any superstores in the country.

I’ll write something for online shopping trend in this region, tomorrow. So, cheerios everyone!

I love shopping, especially online window shopping. It is a new term that I think is cool for people like me who loves to window shop without the need to go out from my office and drive few kilometers just to have a look at the newly advertise Coach handbags. Thus the term online window shopping exist in my vocabulary.

But today, I wanted to share tips and tricks on going offline shopping in Malaysia’s big supermarket. Let’s see what we got here:

1. Know your supermarket
There are many big malls in this country, to cater people needs of buying items in bulk or just window shopping. We have Giant, Carrefour, Pakson, Cold Storage and Tesco located in mega malls like Alamanda (Putrajaya), Mid Valley (Bangsar) and others. At some places, there supermarkets have their own building that also housed several reputable shops like Bonia, Mothercare, Lovely Lace and such. It is worthwhile to research a little bit on the supermarket that you want to visit.

2. Know your shopping time.
Unless you like to walk through shoppers, do not go groceries shopping on Friday lunch time. For Malaysian, especially women, Friday lunch time is the longest lunch break of the week. While the Muslim men went to pray at the mosque, it is time for the women to go shopping in a group (well, corporate ladies usually have clique, I don’t unfortunately). This is the time that the supermarket is jam packed with people and the worst thing, you have less items to choose if you are late by half an hour. So, go shop on other day during weekdays lunch time.

3. Do not buy other stuffs before entering the supermarket.
I personally hate to have my shopping bags tied up with fastener upon entering the supermarket. The guard will definitely do that, as they suspect you will take things, scrap the price label and pretend that you do not buy anything. Pathetic isn’t it? But it is true. So, don’t buy other things before entering the supermarket.

Okay, first 3 tips for today. Look back for more tomorrow while I unveil more discoveries while doing offline shopping in Malaysia.