Last Saturday was the Suria Meriang Staff Sales (now known as Estee Lauder Malaysia Sdn Bhd Staff Sale), also nicknamed by me as the mother of all warehouse sales was held at Berjaya Times Square Hotel. Did I or did I not went for this yearly affair? Urrrmmm well, I did but I wasn’t allowed to publicise it so I won’t be telling you how it went this year. Oh bummer 🙁 . So instead I thought of sharing with you several smart shopping tips that I practised personally in order to constrain myself from overhaul or impulsive purchase. Warehouse sales newbies, you got to read this 😉
Sleep early ahead
The Estee Lauder Malaysia Staff Sale is well-known for not only their irresistable 50% to 70% discounted products but for the queue line. Although the sales requires an invitation card in order to enter, you will be surprised to know that hardcore fans will take the extra mileage and queue from 12am! As for me, I don’t go that early. This year would be my 3rd year and I’m still consistent with going at 5am or 5.30am the latest. Sufficient sleep to me is important as I don’t have the luxury to wake up at 4.30am and reach the sales location by 5am. Just so you are curious, I live one hour away from the city. Sufficient sleep is crucial for driving such distant and at such an early hour. Plus you will need all the energy to queue for hours and shop for hours thereafter.
Wear comfortable and airy clothes
You are not going for a date or a party so dressing comfortable is very important. Warehouse sales is usually jam packed and hot. I normally wear just baby t-shirt and shorts. Nothing fancy but at least I am comfortable and cool 😀 . This year I have seen many that wore short dresses. That triggers my curiosity on how they are going to sit on the floor in the queue line without flashing to others hehe!
Wear comfortable and covered shoe
I am not a sports shoe type of girl so flats it is for me. I strongly recommend wearing toe-covered shoe because there will be lots of toe-stepping and kicking action. Although I wore flats to Estee Lauder Malaysia Staff Sale every year, the crowd never fail to kick me hard and step on my foot all the time. Ouch!
Bring only what’s necessary
I normally would go warehouse sales with a sling bag because it is so much easier to move around without worrying about the bag. Estee Lauder Malaysia Staff Sale seems to look strict with no bags allowed terms but so far I have no problem with bringing my sling bag in. The staff would just wrap a plastic bag over it. The recent L’Oreal Luxe warehouse sales is the worse. All bags would need to be left at the counter and when I went to redeem my bag, the staff couldn’t find my bag! To be on the safe side, bring a wristlet that can fit your phone, cash, credit card, ID and car keys. I brought just a wristlet to this year Estee Lauder Malaysia Staff Sale. You can also bring the necessity and put it in your pockets but I wouldn’t recommend that. It can be quite chaotic inside the sales hall.
Think of a budget and bring the exact amount of cash / credit card
Now, in warehouse sales everything can get very tempting at all angles. What I do the night before is to think of a shopping budget. For me it’s quite simple to gauge a budget to spend as I don’t really need anything at the moment 🙂 . Once I have the budget to spend for example RM500, I will then make sure I have RM200 cash with me. The reason why I only bring RM200 cash for a shopping budget of RM500 is because I might only ended up with RM100 of stuff, which I could pay with cash. If the amount exceed RM200, I can always pay with my credit card. Sometimes what you are looking for may not be available at warehouse sales so you might ended up with lesser things to buy than your expectation. So bring cash. Warehouse sale usually don’t allow credit card payment for RM50 purchase.
Take your time deciding
One annoying thing that I notice that everyone has been doing at Estee Lauder Malaysia Staff Sale is to bag everything they see, sat on the floor disrupting the moving crowd and then only decided. When I said take your time deciding I don’t mean for you to bag everything! Don’t do that. Other people might be looking for that particular product that you throw blindly in your shopping bag and that you are not interested to purchase at all. What I usually do is to look at the product at the counter, look for the description / expiry date / manufacturing date and then I will think if I really need it. If I don’t I will just put it back for the next person.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you are wrong in bagging everything you see. Just do it the proper way that can benefit you and save other people’s time 😉
Do not buy if you don’t intend to use
One newbie mistake that everyone including myself have been doing is to buy things that doesn’t suit you or things that you know you will never use just because it is dirt cheap. As I said earlier, warehouse sales can be really tempting. When I started warehouse sales shopping I too buy everything that I see which is cheap, knowing perfectly I will never use it. That is called impulsive purchase. Now I only buy things I need or fast moving products like cleanser or finishing powder etc that I know I will use. I no longer buy things that I deemed as “I will find a use for it”.
Check for manufacturing / expiry date
This is very important. Most people are blind-sided with the huge discount that they have forgotten to check the manufacturing or expiry date. Most product nowadays comes with either one date. Some, both. I have learnt earlier the days when I just started skin care to read brand’s batch code to gauge their manufacturing date. The easiest one to read to date is all the brands under Estee Lauder Group! 😀 . If you have problem identifying, use Check Cosmetic with your phone.
Queue for check out with manner
I know it can be really tiring and sleepy after a few hours roaming in warehouse sales. Both your leg feels like breaking in half, your back is sore, the base of your feet is sore, you’re sweating or even hungry and thirsty. That doesn’t mean you can be mean to others or cut the queue just to get out from there. So far I have never encounter any rude people in the queue line eagerly wanting to pay up lol. Unless there’s money distribution up front 😛 . But I do have people at the back of me that like to get really close just because they couldn’t wait any longer. These people are usually the anxious one trying to get the line moving. If you are one of those people, let me ask you this…how far you think the line can go by sticking your body onto me? An inch? So yeah. Please be considerate. Usually when this happens to me, I will look at the person to see if he/she is the crazy type. If not I will tell the person not to stand too close and if the person have a black grumpy face on, heck I will do the “tsk, tsk” annoying sound until he/she gets it. It helps if there’s friends queuing together. I can tell my friends the issue in a rather loud voice so the person behind me gets it.
Checking out
My advise is to remember the prices of the stuff you are buying and keep an eye on the cashier machine. I have seen girls rushing back to the cashier after checking out because the price wasn’t right. It is so troublesome when error like this happen especially if you are paying with credit card. Last year I spotted that the price on the product is different from what appears on the cashier machine. That is a human error whereas the price tag on the product was wrongly placed. Do a double check again after you’ve gotten your receipt. Leave the sales area only when you are very sure that everything was intact.
Lastly, enjoy your haul! Do you have a warehouse sales story to share? Do tell! It would be interesting to hear your experience 🙂
Comments (28)
Oh I went to the sale as well. It was my first time there and the damage was awful at RM700 while my friend bought over RM1k.. Gosh, if only the prices weren’t so tempting. I didn’t really mind the people sitting down and sorting through things (so long as they didn’t have a million and 1 things to sort through) if they will only kindly return the items they do not want back to the counter. I got so irritated at some people leaving products on the floor in the payment queue. Mind you it wasn’t 1 or 2 items. All in all good sale, however by the time i left at about 8.45am most of the good stuff from MAC was gone. Kind of pity the people who were lining up by the time i got out.
I don’t mind those sitting on the floor this year too as the hall is larger than previous years. For the past few years I had the hardest time walking around as the space is small. I agreed with you on returning the items back to the counter. Sadly none are considerate. I was waiting at the counter waiting for things to be put back to the counter. The cashier will take a long time bringing the stuff back to counter.
This year is a bit sad. By 8.30am most things were out. Last year there’s lots of MAC. But this year there’s loads of Bobbi Brown to my delight!
Yeah the MAC stock was a bit sad. However i managed to grab a few good things one of that being a blush from their A Fantasy of Flowers line which was released in February! If I knew they were selling such recent collections i would have tried harder to get tickets for the previous years!!
Anyway I wouldn’t have known about this sale without your blog. So thanks a lot =D
MAC blushes are cool. I like the duo eyeshadow palette. It’s going for RM35 😀 . I was in love with my It’s Judy Time palette so I didn’t pick up any eyeshadow. My specific target with MAC was paint pot. I want nude paint pot as base. I finally got it and that’s it. Craving satisfied 😀 . Basically I got everything I was thinking of getting. So it’s cool 😀
Oh you get to know about the sales here??! Yay! I’m glad you did and managed to score an invite 😉
Good tips! I wish I had read them before going, but not regrets!
You’re veteran Arpita so there’s no need LOL.
I wonder who was funny/ crazy enough to arrive at midnight LOL!
Wonderful post, Fiona! And a practical and creative way for you to write about the sale without actually writing about THE sale.
I really love your sale posts, by the way. Always full of amazing advice and good hauls.
I wish you could show us your haul…I’m always curious about what others got but that’s okay…those are the rules.
I also want to use your blog to thank the person who gave me a ticket to the Estee Lauder sale this year – it was so, so, so very kind and generous of her to share this with me even though she just met me. For that, I’m soooo grateful. She is always in and around the Street Love blog so she will know who she is 😀
As much as I wanted everything, I had to set myself a budget and I went over it but not by too much. I got some really amazing things including a set that I wanted but couldn’t afford at the full price. It was an experience, I’ll tell you that and yes, a little more agressive than some of the other sales I’ve been to but much more pleasant than I expected and you know what, it was fun to have a little slumber party (without the sleep) with a few good friends. It’s amazing what you learn about your friends in the smallest hours of the morning hahaha Very worthwhile experience. I loved it!
LOL. Every year there’s a few girls that queue from 1am actually. So it’s not a surprise 😉 . I know right? I can’t blog about the sales but I’m doing it the other way haha.
I’ve uploaded a photo of my mini haul in Instagram. I’m not suppose to do that, let’s hope no one finds out 😛 . Oppss to the person who gave you the tickets. Next year you don’t need tickets. You might bump into some kind soul that can spare VIP tickets lol.
It’s a wonder how lack of sleep and tiredness can reveal so much 😛
Such useful tips! What a bummer, seeing what you will buy will excite me although I’m not the one buying, hehe.. Just a little curious though, how do we get ticket to this sale?
Haha I know 🙂 . Made a promise to Estee Lauder not to blog about it. You can see the haul at my Instagram 😉
You can get tickets from the BA I suppose. That’s how I got it last time too. But it really depends whether they will give it to you or not. Usually they will give it to their friends or family.
Oh too bad I had to attend some school activity on that day or else I will be in the happy crowd as well! Nice tips Fiona!
Thanks. Oh don’t worry. I always said not going equals to money saving haha
Oh that’s true!!! But looking at others’ hauls really made me heartache, MAC are all so cheap!
MAC price is alright. The color selection is quite dull this year.
Hey, how did u get the tickets 🙁
Usually the tickets are meant for their staff and it’s up to their staff to give to family and friends or even customers over the counter. If you have any close BA from MAC/Bobbi Brown/Estee Lauder/Clinique, you could ask them if they have any spare tickets.
Hi im interested to get 2 tickets for this years staff sale. Can u update me if u have any extras thanks
Alina, try to ask from someone who work for the company. I don’t work for the company.
A friend has 2 tickets to let got. Lemme know if anyone has interest, thanks.
Okay thanks!
Hi Fiona,
May I know if the MAC mineralized foundation is available at the sale? If so…do they have a lot of those available? I’ve got tickets but having some prob arriving early to Q…only able to arrive around 10am. What’s your advice?
Hi Spiderspinster,
I don’t think so there are Mineralized Foundation. Everything other thing yes, there will be a lot of them. You can still go in by 10am. They are still queue line by then. Just that the products might be lesser by then. But still worth to go 😀
Thank you very much 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
Hi,
I was wondering if they sell bobbi brown brushes during the sale?
Not that I remember EL.
Hi dear. I’m gonna visit Kl and have a bunch of shopping to do! Was searching about the drugstores so found ur blog and already enjoying it a lot! Would really appreciate if u help me with some question. When can I get good sales and offers on makeup either clothing. Like in summer is there any particular occasion? Tanx XoXo
Hi negga, if you’re looking for offers such as warehouse sale, there are none at the moment. Our local drugstore Guardian and Watsons are constantly having sale on makeup products. As for clothing, do try Forever 21 or H&M. Nothing special here when it comes to clothing hehe.
No we don’t have 4 seasons like other countries so it doesn’t make a difference here 😉