I am Danny Foo

Uniqlo Malaysia Opening Day Photos and Video

Malaysian’s 2nd home no doubt, can be shopping malls.

Brave the queue or test your patience

Me and Hawk headed to Malaysia’s first Uniqlo store opening at Fahrenheit 88 (formerly KL Plaza). We arrived around 10:30am and stepping out of lift, were greeted by the throngs of bodies already queuing. Plus, it wasn’t just any queue.

uniqlo malaysia crowd

It was a queue which spanned from the front entrance, into the concourse, to the back of the mall and back out again to the main entrance of the Uniqlo Malaysia outlet. Within 30 minutes, the morning queue grew till people started forming a line to the wall.

Though one of the good things which happened was the spillover business to kiosks nearby. The kiosk with yellow, orange and white balloons (I think) sold some gelato to patrons queuing for Uniqlo. 😛

In the morning, some VIPs were there to officiate the opening. And I heard someone mention, apparently one of the VIPs was Maya Karin. *shrug*

And before I forget, even after you’ve reached outside, there’s still 1 more queue before you can step into Uniqlo Malaysia.

As the crowd started moving, onlookers started gathering outside Level 2 of Uniqlo Malaysia. Only to peek inside the store and envy the shoppers inside who’re making purchases. Honestly, me and Hawk were thinking, why on Earth are they torturing themselves? LOL!

Drinks on the house

Some lucky people were given free drinks courtesy from one of the F&B outlets in Fahrenheit 88. I don’t remember the name but they’re located on Level 2.

free drinks for uniqlo malaysia patrons Once inside, the ground floor looked like it was ransacked. Seriously. Clothes were on the floor. They were piled on top of each other. Some chucked aside like it was someone’s house. But what bothered me most was a lurking stench. Thinking to myself, someone had really really REALLY bad body odor. Yuck!

Inside Uniqlo Malaysia at Fahrenheit 88

In terms of staff, they had enough and Uniqlo prepared their Malaysian team well. They were still mindful to help customers find sizes, even in this chaotic and smelly environment. Kudos! Plus, you’ll never not know where’s the back of the line – here’s why.

Come to think of it. They should’ve placed one of these staff in the mall, together with the sign. This way, everyone can tell where’s the start (or end) of the line.

In the Uniqlo Malaysia store, you’ll find garments from simple T-shirts to formal wear to winter wear. In my view, Uniqlo’s line of clothes is for the simple and functional consumer at an affordable price with awesome quality. The fabric used for most of their garments were soft and comfortable. Including their UJeans! 😀

men's underwear and socks — Men's underwear and socks

And here’s what really happened.

Me and Hawk didn’t queue the moment we reached. Instead, we observed the crowd and estimated the time it took at the time to reach point A to point B. The crowd like this may have spooked us off a bit. 😛

As it was nearing 12pm, we decided to hunt for lunch and later come to back to re-assess the situation. The line was shorter but it was at its shortest much later.

In our hunt for lunch, we spotted the YES cube and troopers.

yes marketing cube and storm troopers

YES is the new 4G broadband offered by YTL Communications.

We stood in line from 1:25pm inside the mall only to reach the outside queue about 2 hours and 30 minutes later. Once inside, we rummaged through what’s left of the t-shirts on the ground floor before heading to the Men’s section on the 3rd floor. If you’re looking for UJeans, don’t waste your time on the ground floor. There are shelves of it upstairs! 😉

If you’re going to use the fitting room, estimate 30 minutes to 1 hour wait time. And for UJeans, you’ll want to try all of them irregardless of it looking the same. Because 1 of the pairs I bought fitted differently compared to the others. Which is weird, I know.

And here’s a very important message:

Uniqlo Malaysia now opens at 11:00am and closes at 8:00pm.

Plus, I read on their Facebook page they discourage patrons queuing from 7:30pm.

Which I suppose is understandable, thinking back to the mess they’ve to sort out before closing time. In addition, it’s a long weekend, so you can expect a crowd these 3 days.

Fahrenheit 88 parking rates

Monday to Thursday: RM3 first hour and RM2 every additional hour
Friday to Sunday: RM3 first hour and RM3 every additional hour (ouch!)
Maximum per day: RM15 flat rate

You can get RM1 off parking if you spend more than RM100 in a single receipt. This needs to be verified at the concierge services counter located towards behdind mall.

But I paid the painful maximum rate of RM15 yesterday parking from 10:30am to 6:00pm. My advice, take the train to Bukit Bintang and walk. Unless you’re only expecting to spend less than 1 hour there.

Must Read: Time spent at Uniqlo Malaysia store

2 to 3 hours average queuing time to get into Uniqlo Malaysia
1 to 2 hours shopping time depending what you’re buying (best to plan ahead)
1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes queue for fitting room (you may find women on men’s floor)
5 minutes to 1 hour waiting time at cashier (depending on crowd)

To the patrons today, good luck. To Uniqlo Malaysia and the staff, gambatte! 😀

Limited Offer: Opening items sale period

uniqlo opening special prices — Click for larger version (650kb)

Note the following items will be on sale for a limited time only.

2010 UT-shirts collection: RM29.90 (November 4 – 18, 2010)
UJeans collection: RM49.90 (November 4 – December 2, 2010)
Fleece collection: RM49.90 (November 4 – 18, 2010)
Free tote bag by spending Rm200 in a single receipt. (November 4 – 7, 2010)

And it’s subject to while stocks last. Me and Hawk personally went for the jeans only. Plus, when I asked a Uniqlo staff, he said the offer only applied to Regular Straight Fit. It would be disappointing to find this was untrue right now.

But overall, I love the outlet and clothes. It’s going onto my regular places to shop list. 🙂

Must Read: Before buying Apple iPhone 4

If you already have your Apple iPhone 4, it might be too late to save it. Save it from what? Definitely not Tom Dickinson’s blender.

But glass shatter. Yes, I’m referring to your shiny mirror-like finish on the front and back of your Apple iPhone 4. That glass, can shatter from a fall.

As much as I didn’t want to believe it, all truth has been published on the Internet. And to make matters worst, a couple of people have already done the Apple iPhone 4 drop test.

Exhibit A

This tester didn’t use a protective case or bumper, as Apple iPhone 4 users refer to it. However, notice the average height and drop of the iPhone 4. As much as you may be comforting yourself right now saying, you won’t drop it that many times, don’t be so sure. It’s really scary knowing that without protection, the glass shattered easily by the 3rd drop. In addition, I’ve a bad feeling our tarmacs is much more unforgiving than theirs. Ouch.

But hang on, here’s the final drop test video I want to share.

Exhibit B

This dude did the drop test with the Apple iPhone 4 bumper. The real life scenario tested were from heights of 3 feet, 6 feet, 8 feet and an attention seeking; 22 feet – off his roof!

After watching this video, you’d have a sigh of relief knowing you’ve a bumper. However, I’m wondering how much protection can a bumper give you because the front glass is still exposed. Possibly the back too, depending on the bumper you purchased.

Personally, this design flaw is holding me back more from getting an Apple iPhone 4. This “what if the glass shatters” is a whole different level compared to “I’ve a dent in my iPhone” from dropping it.

Which makes you wonder, will Apple release a newer iPhone 4 in the coming months?

Movie Review: Takers

Won myself free tickets via Nuffnang to watch the movie Takers at GSC, Midvalley. It’s been a really long time since I stepped into the Midvalley cinemas and noticed they did some upgrades to their entrance. I like the high ceilings and their movie seatings reception. It feels more spacious now though their movie screen numbers were oddly laid out.

Which Taker took our movie tickets?!

During the ticket redemption queue, I caught word over Twitter from a friend that Nuffnangers may have forgotten to bring the tickets. :O

Lol epic failure. Nuffnang staff forgot to bring tickets for their screening. Can fail lagi later if disaster recovery hancur.
Via cincauhangus

But the recovery was fast and well done by the Nangers in charge at the table. They handed out the Nuffnang badges in replacement of tickets and numbered the redeemers. Although they asked us to come back 30 minutes later, we got the tickets 10-15 minutes after. Kudos.

Movie synopsis

Takers takes you into the world of a notorious group of criminals (Idris Elba, Paul Walker, T.I., Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Michael Ealy) who continue to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies. They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind and laying low between heists. But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened detective (Matt Dillon) who is hell-bent on solving the case.

Takers walking from exploding helicopter

Takers short of my expectation

Unfortunately, I’d only give it a 6/10. The first quarter of the movie was technically the trailer. And as much bang-bang-boom went on, precision timing and creative scheming were interesting parts of the movie, it didn’t leave me an impression to want to watch it again.

It wasn’t boring but entertaining. In other words, something to watch if you needed some action for the day.

P.S.: Late comers should stop coming late or not come at all

Some redeemers left the cinema because they were given the first row from the screen. What I’d advice to curb this is, Nuffnangers need to honestly inform redeemers of this before they’re given the tickets. Let them decide before they walk-in.

This way, they’d be smart enough to note they were late and not expect miracles. Worst scenario, you get proud people moving their butts into empty seats higher. Although during this screening, there were a lot of nice side seats because Nuffnang gave out pairs. 😉

Linkin Park reinvented their sound

The 1st ever time I listened to Linkin Park was the release of their Hybrid Theory album, which was 10 years ago. Wow. Now that I think about it, it’s been a decade. And the song which I remembered from the album was, One Step Closer. You see flying kung-fu shaolin type performers around.

The sound in the Hybrid Theory contained a lot of anger and sadness. A great mixture for the genre they categorized in. Though thinking about it, their sound have always been rock, alternative and somewhat, electronic.

Then in 2003, they released the Meteora album. The songs made famous were Somewhere I Belong, Breaking the Habit, Numb and Faint. This album to me sounded like there was struggle with a hint of giving up.

It was also during this time, I recall being in Melbourne when I ordered their special edition album which came with a t-shirt plus a DVD. I was very inspired by the music video; Breaking the Habit, with the sketchy style.

Plus, this was the year they had a concert right here in Malaysia! Mosh pit, baby! A concert I’d never forget, which you’d probably can only go now if you went to Singapore. Why? Let’s say, our so called higher-ups were unhappy of their performance behaviour. LOL! B*tches.

In 2007, they released their Minutes to Midnight album. The song I suppose most listeners can relate to would be from the Transformers sequel; What I’ve Done.

Funnily enough, when I re-watched this music video, they were already moving towards the awareness of wars. And in this album, their sound was about the suffering and hope.

Now in 2010, they’ve labeled their new album; A Thousand Suns. The sound is very much different from the past. It’s more electronic to me. Plus, when you listen, you can’t help but feel remorse or an annoying poking feeling.

A friend of mine said, you’d only enjoy the album if you listened to it from beginning to end. Because, it’s like they’re telling you a story. He said, they were talking about WWII. And I don’t think it could be far off, since the album booklet had much war imagery in it.

Then again, everyone interprets music differently – like, design. So, you tell me what you think of this?

This song is; The Catalyst. And while it’s a whole different sound from 2003, I’m gonna let myself immerse in it and sit in first. Slowly taking my time to envision the state of mind, the band members experienced when they created this album.