Eslite Spectrum KL - Members' preview

TL;DR - ehh for me

As a not that cheena kinda person, I didn't know about this bookstore until it was announced that it was opening in KL as their first SE Asian store.

In the weeks (or months) leading up to the grand opening, they've had membership recruitment ground events at the more cheena weekend bazaars, which involves downloading the app and signing up there. Unfortunately I didn't get any of the goodies at the most recent ground event because the short code they used for the OTP got overloaded and I probably wasn't the only one that couldn't sign up then. Normally most other businesses would've made it up to people for this by just giving them out regardless, but not this cheena company. So strike one there for me.

On the app, they give an incentive to check in on it every day leading up to the opening - luck of the draw vouchers. What I got were: vouchers for the other merchants in the store, free (black) coffee and some tickets to the members' preview event, which we had to RSVP by email. But rest of the days, nothing.

Used the PTO to go for the members' preview on Friday (cos I know Saturday would be a nightmare). The catch is I would have to spend money on the public transportation to get there cos I didn't want to deal with driving and parking in downtown KL on a weekday. Tried out the Park and Ride and rode the MRT down.

By the time I got there, it was almost noon and I didn't have to queue up (that long) to get in. Took them awhile to notice me waiting to check me in. 

I also had several free coffees to redeem at the in-store café, but apparently they were so swamped that they had to tell people that it would be at least half an hour or whatever. I was like, fine, I'll just walk around. I imagined that they must've wasted a lot of black coffee (which was all they would let anyone redeem; no condiments some more) that people either forgot to collect, or didn't want to wait for. When I eventually went back for it, they just handed me a freshly made one for someone else than to give me a lukewarm drink that also didn't correspond with the number on the receipt. Strike two. Members day also swamped already, they lagi not gonna survive when it open to the public.  

Was right in that the books had smaller square-footage (35% hor) than everything else they had going on. Only got one book, mostly for the GWP, which I kinda regretted because the book was hefty AF, and also no storewide members' discount or anything for the basic level (got also only applicable from Monday to Wednesday... poodah la). Strike three. 

In conclusion, will most likely only go back to use up whatever e-vouchers I could, but probably wouldn't bother to level up... cos not willing to spend RM800.