Thursday, October 6, 2011

Big Bad Wolf Books Preview Sale 2011

Mommy is very lucky to have the opportunity to attend this preview sale despite not joining any Big Bad Wolf pre-sale contests, thanks to Mommy's sister-in-law from My Little Sprouts who won two passes, so had one to give away to Mommy! :-)



This years's Big Bad Wolf (BBW) sale is held at Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS). To go there, Mommy used a toll-free way starting from UCSI University in Taman Connought, Cheras. Here's how: Head into MRR2 and then enter the exit that mentions Seremban (which leads you to KL-Seremban Highway) and shortly after, look out for signboard that says exit to UPM or Seri Kembangan. That will lead you to the roundabout (with MINES, Palace of Golden Horse Hotel and Equestarian Centre signages) and head for 6 o'clock. Shortly after that, take a left exit to enter the old road of Seri Kembangan where you will see many furniture malls and a food court on your left. It's a long straight road and then you will reach a crossroad, turn left and you will see South City Plaza on your left. Go straight all the way to the end and turn right, but make sure you keep right to enter into BESRAYA Highway (or known as Sungai Besi Highway). Travel on it till you see a signboard that says UPM exit. Turn right and shortly after, left into UPM and go all the way straight (it's a long road with traffic lights) till you see signages for  Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and MAEPS which prompts you to turn left. Go all the way straight (again a long road, but passes MARDI headquarters on your right) till you see MAEPS on your right. Voila for using highways without having to pay! ^_^

Once on MAEPS ground, there are sufficient signages to direct people to park their cars. Once Mommy parked, a tram (or rather a mini bus of sorts) came waiting already! Mommy quickly hopped into the tram and was driven to Hall A. By then it was already 2.50pm and there was no queue nor crowd at the entrance. The BBW staff checked on Mommy's pass and the chopped Mommy's hand with the BBW initials as a marker to prevent double-entry.



Once Mommy stepped into the hall, Mommy was amazed by the spaciousness of the area and the hugh bulk of books for customers to browse!



Not just that, this season's sale is really well-organized - two thumbs up to BBW! Here's why:
  • Hugh and easily visible display cards indicating the genre of the books are erected, so you can quickly and easily zoom in to the pile of books of your genre of interest - a real time saver!
  • There are customer service counters to provide you with boxes so that you can browse and do your book-hoarding. Not just that, they also allow customers to deposit their hoards in their safe-keeping and a number tag will be given to the customer. That way, customers don't have to carry their heavy hoards around as they browse.
  • Numerous cashier counters are available (something like 20+ counters!). Not just that, BBW also has several staff assigned to each cashier counter to sort the books according to prices and thus report to the cashier for keying-in. So they work really fast!
  • After sales service is also provided. They have staff (and the tool!) to help customers cart their heavy hoards to the tram-waiting area. Otherwise, customers can opt to do their own  'pickup' by depositing their hoards at a place and then sit the tram to get to their cars and drive over to Hall A for pickup.




Anyway, Mommy opted to carry the heavy hoard into the tram because Mommy had to rush for time. Why? Because halfway through browsing the books, Mommy received a distress call from the uni regarding a disgruntled parent coming over to sort out her dissatisfaction with the son's exam results. Because of that, Mommy's enjoyment of browsing books had to be cut short to only one hour! So at 4.10 pm, Mommy left MAEPS and headed back to UCSI University.

Even though it was just one hour of enjoyment, Mommy managed to grab some value buys.


With both Juan Or and Mommy being choo-choo train enthusiasts, Mommy got these, each for RM8. The 'Railway Restored' books have very beautiful photos (plus specifications) of vintage steam locomotives found in UK and Ireland. The 'Pacific Senator' is a true-life story of a train driver since the World War I days.




Since Juan Or loves to play with stickers (and loves peeling the stickers out again!), Mommy found these books just right for him, each for RM8 (very worth it!). Mind you, the books are hard-covered, the pages are that of board books and they are storybook-cum-activity-fun books, plus there are 100 (or more) vinyl stickers for Juan Or to stick and peel till his fingers ache!




P/S: By the way, Juan Or opened the "Cars" book already and pasted the stickers all over a page so much so you can see cars floating up in the sky! *Sigh* Looks like he still has not developed the maturity of placing stickers correctly according to context.


Since Juan Or likes to look at cars and jet planes (he often thinks of Starscream,, Thurderwing and Dirge, the jet plane Decepticon characters in Transformers), Mommy bought these for RM12 each. Each book is in full-colour, hard-covered and with glossy pages.




Mommy also bought these pre-school workbooks emphasizing on reading, writing and counting, each book for RM5. The four books at the top row have 320 pages each and two of the books are in black-and-white, the other two in full colour (value buy, right?). The bottom row book, however, is 26-page only, but is a wipe-clean book. Be reminded though that some of the top row books are not consistently priced because Mommy spotted some having the RM8 price tag. So be careful!




More activity books for Juan Or, each for RM5 (really worth it!). The Wall-E construct-and-play book would normally costs RM17.90 whereas the Transformers activity book has 64 pages, is in full colour and the paper quality is excellent (100-gram type of paper)!



The final hoard for the day - car repair book for RM10 and children X-mas storybook for RM8. This car repair book has full-colour step-by-step photos to show you how, has useful how-to and what-to troubleshooting tips for different departments of the car and is written for the laymen - good for both Papa and Mommy! The X-mas book is really a value buy because it is hard-covered, has board pages and has movable optical illusion pictures to prick children's interest.




Total damage? RM111.15, because Mommy got extra 5% discount for using OCBC credit card. ^_^


Excited about what you may hoard there? The sale will be on from 7th to 16th October 2011 from 10 am till 9 pm.

P/S: Know what happened after Mommy drove back to office, so-calledly to counsel and resolve issues with the disgruntled parent? Anti-climax no. 1 - the parent didn't turn up at all. Anti-climax no.2 - after getting clarification from the colleague who first received the complain, turns out the parent is trying to argue or fight for a lost cause! *Grrrr.....wasting people's time, energy and petrol only!! *

10 comments:

Yannie said...

I can see that you had so much fun in BBW book fair. Love all your loots too.

Inspired Momx1 said...

I was there too! :) It's always good to go for a preview sale, not too crowded.

Anonymous said...

Parents nowadays are too worried about their children to a point where they don't realize they may be spoiling them. They fully believe in what their children say and will stand up or even quarrel when something is no going their children's way.

However, because of their spoiling them, children tend to use this and sometimes tell lies to protect themselves. These gullible parents will buy whatever their parents say and herein lies the BIG problem.

Jobless Girl said...

Wow, seem like lot of book on sale. Gonna bring trolley along.

Little Kit Boy said...

Wow...so fruitful. Really can't wait to go this Sunday.

Are you going for the 2nd round? hehehehe

Small Kucing said...

Very good buy.

aisay...the parents really irresponsible. If not you could have stayed longer.

Ya...Alice very kind. She helped us yesterday

U sempat snap pic of the bbw chop ah? I lupa terus and then the thing turn like a birthmark :(

Alice Law said...

Aiyor... I feel like giving the disgruntled parent a Piak(tight slap)! Wasting your energy, time and most despicable... your shopping mood! Well, look at the positive point of view, she saved your pocket from further damage...lol!

yvonne said...

Everyone went to the BBW and got great loots from there :D

I can see you grabbed more on cars/trains/planes books, all Juan Or's favourite.

Have fun reading...

Alice Phua said...

Sheoh Yan, thanks. :-)

Inspired Mom, oh yes, I agree with you. The preview sale is the best. I went again on 7th and everything is like berselerak....chaotic.

Anonymous, I agree with you totally, they will blame everyone else (including the system, etc) except themselves!

Alice Phua said...

Jobless Girl, yes, it's practical to bring trolley along if you intend to buy a lot of books.

Little Kit Boy, oh, yes, I went again for the 2nd round on 7th Oct (1st day sale)! Hehehe....will put up my hasil in the blog soon! In the meantime, enjoy the sale!

Small Kucing, yalah, this parent really kacau one. I baru browse for about 15-20 minutes after arriving in BBW, the phone call came already! Cheh! Spoil my mood for browsing....everything have to do fast-fast. The akibat? Came back and found the Toy Story vinyl sticker book got defect at the spine part. :-(

Alice Law, LOL, that's another way of looking at it! Btw, becos I rasa tak puas shop that day, I went again on the 1st day sale....luckily this time no distress call halfway thru, so can peacefully browse and then balik rumah terus.

Yvonne, thanks! Yup, it's difficult to get specialized books on vehicles for a cheap price, so this is the opportunity!