Do you remember the days when you were with your family on a long distance trip back to your hometown during the festive season? I remember the time when my dad would usually make a stop at an old petrol station to refuel the car while my mother would take my sister to the toilet while waiting for the fill-up by the pump attendant. What I would usually do was stare at the pump meter or the attendant while he finishes his job. Hardly exciting. After a mere 5-6 minutes after our stop and with the car with a loaded tank we were already set to continue our long and vigorous journey – minus the tolled highways- back to our hometown in Perak.
Today however, an average visit to the petrol station would AT LEAST take 10 minutes. Long gone is the boring wait in the car and stares at the slow pump meter. If my late mother is still alive, we would have set out a picnic frenzy at the corner of the station. Dad would surely spend some time in the convenience store, gondola- shopping whilst my little sister and I surf the Internet on our laptops. Petrol station attendants now merely assist patrons on their fuel fill-up as we have started practising self service sometime back. Visiting a petrol kiosk these days should be considered as a trip on its own rather than a quick stop.
We have conjured a list (at 1st glance) on the many things that people would be able to do when they stop at any petrol station today:
1) Petrol fill-up
2) Go to the toilet
3) Prayers
4) Buy Drinks, Tidbits, Cigarettes, Newspapers & Magazines
5) Inflate the tires
6) Wash the car
7) Buy mobile phone reload
8) Withdraw money or deposit money/cheque
9) Have coffee and meal
10) Order McDonald’s or Burger King take-outs
11) Surf the Internet
12) Buy Toothbrush & Groceries
13) Pay the Utility Bills
14) Repair the Car
15) Go to the money changer
16) Send a package via POS Malaysia
17) A Meeting place.
With SOOO many different products and services offered at each different petrol station in the country, people are spoilt for choices each time they pay a visit to their nearest kiosk. There are about more than 3,000 petrol stations nationwide and counting. Oil companies in this country are competing fiercely with each other introducing better and advanced products with greater services at their meticulously well-designed kiosks and C-stores.
The Malaysian citizens these days demand the very best from any service therefore, they tend to be a tad fussy and uncompromising at the simplest of flaws and imperfections in the implementation of some services especially that given at the petrol station. With the array of choices at helm, customers are very choosy when making a choice where and with which brand that their car should be refuelled with. From experience and a logical observation, Malaysians loves to be pampered and showered with free gifts when they have departed with their hard-earned cash. This is a norm if not a cancer. I’m sure many are familiar with the sight of a petrol kiosk offering a FREE mineral water (of any brand – beggars can’t be choosers here) with each RM30 or more petrol fill-up. Loyalty petrol cards which reward redeemable prizes to the customers aren’t sufficient enough just yet.
After all these promotional and marketing efforts by the oil companies and the own initiatives of the petrol station dealers to boost their daily sales, there are still some of us in the crowd who DO NOT know where we can get the best of deals at a particular petrol kiosk or where can you get updates on colourful choices in store for Malaysians during this particular week or month. Where do we get that FREE CAR WASH or WiFi CONNECTION or questions like, “IS THERE AN ATM MACHINE AT THIS PARTICULAR STATION? IF YES, WHICH BANK?” and “CAN I RELOAD MY TOUCH N GO CARD THERE?”?
I’m making my official (heh) debut into blogging today due to the vast growing trend (yup, yup) in blogging and of course to get the best of deals for the Malaysian public on what is the bargain of the month/quarter/year/decade when you visit a petrol kiosk these days…plus feedback and ideas from the world outside on the greatest deals that they have ever experienced from a normal petrol fill-up.
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