The previous pictures of the chandeliers weren't that great..so I hope that these new, larger pictures of 'em will be much clearer for viewing. But the best way to see its beauty is to see it in real life. With this (chandelier), we also have matching crystal wall lights that come with it. I'll post those pics sometime soon. 
Listen, I have a friend who has brought these stunning chandeliers into the country and he has stocks that he wants to showcase to some of our friends. This close buddy of mine, Man, is a fanatic on jewellery, crystals, silvers and antiquities. He's very, very meticulous and has got this eye for premium, quality products. This chandelier that Man chose has 8-branches (of lights) and as you can see, is still under wraps (NOTE: There was a 10-branch chandelier (its kinda huge but this 8-branch is a smaller version of that)). It's selling like HOT CAKES because it's a BARGAIN. Why a bargain? Here's why :
My involvement in the petrol management industry started out inevitably courtesy of my dad in 1986. After years in the Government service, he decided to make an early exit and try his luck ‘outside’, in the private sector. Formerly from the road transport division in the Government, my dad started to get involve businesses related to it (transport) via his decade or so experience handling governmental projects and events. His resume in the private sector after he left include the management of buses, car rentals and a Japanese-run factory managing steel. He got work from the last, Jap one courtesy of his management skills whilst he was still serving (the Government).
His romance with the petrol pump management began when he answered Petronas’ advertisement calls for a new dealer at their (Petronas Dagangan Berhad (PDB)) petrol stations nationwide. With mom, family and his close friends’ encouragements and with a limited but sufficient savings as capital, my dad enrolled himself to be interviewed, shortlisted and eventually, as luck and good fate had it, chosen him to be one of PDB’s pioneers in the then, burgeoning and growing petrol retail business. Dad’s station is in Jalan Cochrane off Jalan Peel, near the Pudu market.
At 13 and growing up, the petrol business has been synonymous with our lifestyle and the 98.733% topic often discussed in daily conversations with family and friends. I practically grew up at the kiosk as it is the place my dad and mom would spend most of their time at. We practically smell of petrol and grease by the time we come home at night sometimes very late. So much for grease lightning.
I have been in all the ‘departments’ (if you may call it) in a petrol station business from being a greasy (but ever charming) pump attendant, car washer, mechanic assistant (more to a pest than assisting) to the management side in supervising the team, conjuring promotions and marketing strategies to boost sales and the tricky business dealings with the customers and even worse, handling the stringent and no-nonsense boss in PDB.
Like many petrol dealers will attest, the petrol management business has more than its downs than its privileges especially today with the ever increasing petrol prices, sharp rise in cost of living and non-stop competitions from other brands, not mentioning fellow dealers of the same brand. If you can see today, there is an influx of petrol stations at every different corner. Sometimes you can spot 2 different petrol kiosks opposite to each other or in the same, small neighbourhood. Pathetic. People would think that getting a petrol kiosk is like hitting the jackpot. The BIG lottery. Honestly, it depends on the location, location and location. Even so, that is no longer a guarantee. Naturally, it’s more of a ‘Indah Khabar Dari Rupa’(Ain’t pretty as it looks) take.
When I started to really manage the petrol kiosk full time in the year 2000, we have had problems with our station’s location starting from the relocation of Government servants, who were our main and loyal customers, to Putrajaya. Our bulk of 10,000 litre sales per day practically derived from these people who at one time populate one of the most celebrated places in town at Jalan Cochrane and Kampung Pandan, KL. Years passed and with other petrol kiosks opened which ‘robbed’ and diverted our customers away from us. Robbing would be too harsh of a picture but our sales took a drastic plunge for the worse and it hurt us bad. Years later, with the Government of Malaysia started to embark on their quest to build the first SMART Tunnel in the world as steps to eradicate traffic congestion caused by flash flood in the Klang Valley. The construction years of this tunnel with was going around the vicinity of our petrol kiosk. Concurrent road closures, building of dividers against the ingress to the station, muddy & dusty roads and the relocated population, contributed to one of the worst sales that we have ever experienced after more than 20 years’ of operation.
We were getting desperate as weekends were the worst as we are situated in a non-residential area. With most of our Cochrane neighbours-cum-customers relocated some kilometres away outside KL, our business depends mostly on credit account customers and passer-by and of course, hardcore customers who - may God bless them – that took the trouble to come all the way from their houses to fill-up petrol at my dad’s kiosk even when there are other petrol kiosks closer to home.
All these hardship prompted me to come up with this blog where we can interact with the public at large on whether they have heard of any free stuffs, great discounts, cool events currently on offer at any of the petrol kiosks in the country or abroad. Plus we also intend to dwell on interesting attributes of a particular petrol station or anything that concerns the petrol management business. In addition, we will bring you some of the happenings at our kiosk and other miscellaneous things we face in life.
Enjoy.
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.
