Banker's Thoughts

How do you spend a wonderful Sunday? I might suggest you to relax at home or shop around for bargain. You will able to see the wonderful sign of "SALES" everywhere in the shopping areas in Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. I believe it creates better effect for Malaysians if they put the sign of "FREE".




It had been raining everyday but last Sunday (8 March) was tremendous hot since morning. Shopping was on the top list that day. I do not feel like spending my Sunday doing nothing at home so, I head to IKANO (the place you can purchase IKEA products) for shopping (OR for "SALES" items).

The journey began...

Everything was fine when i started of driving to the destination. Driving in the city is part and parcel of my job (being a salesperson). You can see plenty cars on the road on weekend compared to weekdays which is reasonable because it is holiday (That is what I thought). Things get worse when I got nearer to IKANO.

I can see massive traffic jam heading towards the car park. Many BRANDS of cars are queuing up . I saw HONDA, TOYOTA, BMW and etc. I can even see PROTON. Haha!



Second thought, it should be NORMAL since it is Sunday. It is a good day for family outing or window shopping. Or maybe they just went there for lunch.



I got into parking 20 minutes later (it only took me 5 minutes to reach parking on normal days) which is quite fast because I skipped the jam and used an alternative entrance (Clever huh?). I continued my walk to IKANO until I saw ....

MANY MANY MANY shoppers queuing up for payments with their trolleys full of goods ...



Wahhh Lauu Ehhh!!! This is only the "SALES" effect. I wonder what will happen if "SALES" become "FREE".

Some questions popped up in my mind ...

• I thought the economy is going bad. Why so many people still afford to spend so much? (Getting extra 3% from EPF is additional for shopping??)

• Is buying a chair, table, bed or TV cabinet a necessity at this time? (I thought we should be more prudence and spend wisely)

• Are they so many people buying furniture because they are moving into their new homes or renovating their current house? (I thought sales of properties is decreasing day by day)

I truly believe Malaysians react extremely fast (faster than a speeding bullet) when they saw the magical word "SALES" in the newspapers, catalogs or even in the shop. Are we getting smarter after experiencing Asian Financial Crisis in 1997? I do not know and I hope we do learn something from the past.