Shop Tender or School Trip?!!

Last Thursday, my Group General Manager issued a memo asking me to be present at the site visit of the tender of the shops at KLIA Satellite building. I was quite excited actually because that was my first time attending a tender exercise. We have to register ourselves at the counter near the security/daily pass at Level 5 before following the security officer into the media room where we will be briefed on the tender exercise. We went through a room which normal passengers don't get to go in the airport. The passage way led us into the media room where the briefing was held. The room was full with people, all of them were very well dressed and carry designer handbags. Of course, one would have to be powerful and rich to tender a shop in KLIA!

The Media Room

After the briefing, we were led into the satellite builing where we have to take the transit train. There were a total of 24 shops to be opened for tender and they were planning to put a few more escalators in Satellite to provide better access to the mezzanine floor (where all the F&B outlets are located) as currently it is only accessible through the transparent lifts. They were also planning to create a tunnel through the jungle in the Satellite building to create a better environment for the transit passengers. They should have done that years ago. The jungle in the middle of the airport is useless anyways. No one looks at it because there's nothing much to see except some trees and bushes. Unlike Singapore Changi Airport, they have a koi pond! KLIA should have turned the jungle into a butterfly or bird park!

The amount of people who attended the site visit was huge. We were all following the guide whom doesn't even have a loudspeaker. Can't even hear a word she says. So I just tagged along like a little kid following a school trip. It's really like a "rombongan sekolah" where everyone gathers and try to follow the guide. It was funny though because I haven't seen anything like this before. At the same time when everyone was so busy taking pictures of the shops they would want to tender, I did not waste anytime by greeting the CEO of Sajibumi (who owns Delifrance, Coffee Bean & Cafe Ritazza in KLIA) and he bought RM300 worth of chocolates from me.... he's a very nice cool man with no ego at all. Definitely a nice boss.

I completed my visit in KLIA at about 5 pm and then rushing off home to get dressed for the Bonia event at 7pm.