Last Days of Kino PI: Clearance Sale Day 1

It is indeed a bittersweet finish for our pioneer store in Indonesia, Kinokuniya Plaza Indonesia.

Since the moment we found out that the store will be closed, we have braced ourselves to face the end. On one hand, we remain confident and strong about our chances in succeeding in the bookstore retail raise because we can now shift our focus entirely to maintain the performance of our mammoth-sized flagship store in Plaza Senayan, the Kinokuniya Jakarta store, and the development of our branches in Pondok Indah Mall-2 and its successor in Grand Indonesia. On the other, it is simply a sad day for us that we have to lose the store that started it all for us. Alas, this is a fact of life (and of business…)

So for weeks we have begun to prepare for the closing of the store. We started to categorize the books and shift our stocks around – which goes where, which stays, which gets special price, which gets discounted… then there were the meetings to organize the logistics of the sale. These are all technical issues that, had we even have the time to write them, would bore you to death. All you need to know is that everything finally came through in the end and yesterday, Monday, 26 April 2010, the beginning of the end finally began.

Our sale started from the moment the store opened at 10 AM. Those of us who were sitting on our (relatively) comfortable chairs in Kinokuniya Jakarta Store waited patiently for news from our brothers and sisters in Kino PI. It was a quiet first hour for us, to be honest, and we didn’t do much in the way of keeping up with the sale. We were going about our usual business of ordering books, answering inquiries from customers, cleaning our shelves and reorganizing books and whatnot… Then, at 11 AM the calls started coming.

And what calls they were! “It’s a party out there!” (Or, as a disgruntled staff reported, “More like a riot, actually.”) Then: “The books are flying off the shelves! This is great!” and “Did you know there’s a long line at the cashier counter?” In short, all the reports were good and we marveled at the sheer enthusiasm of the shoppers and their massive purchases. Then we got ready for lunch… except that there was a phone call from one of the higher-ups who was there and said, “Please send more books. When we say the books are flying off the shelves, we really do mean FLY. Oh, and? Do hurry.” It was at that point we stopped marveling. We boggled instead. We boggled some more and then went to work.

Some of us went to the ‘scene of the crime’ (that is, if buying books is a criminal act – which, luckily, it is not) to directly scope the area and figure out the next course of action. Some others remained behind in the flagship store to start preparing for more books to be sent there (we just had a feeling…) True enough, further reports of the condition of the store prompted cries of, “Refill! Refill!” Luckily for us, by then, the books have been scanned and packed.

While waiting for the delivery vehicle to come and collect the refill, we surfed the web and checked out reactions for the sale. Most are positive, a few are negative… but of course it’s impossible to please everyone. We didn’t have time to get our knickers in a twist, though, because we read some highly entertaining things about the sale, such as Rio Rizky Aditya‘s observation on his Twitter:

Depan gue di @kinokuniya_jkt, udah diskon sampe 70% aja struknya masih 5,5 juta. Sinting nih orang. Mau buka perpustakaan kali ye.

Indeed! We were told that customers’ receipt ran a metre-long, making out like a bandit with the books, which is nothing short of amazing. Again, the enthusiasm of our customers are amazing and we are properly grateful for that.

Later that night, once the refill had been transported away, we found this article in Kompas.com about the store’s closing. It was only then did we remember that one of our ranks, Kino PI’s supervisor Frans Nugraha, had been interviewed by a Kompas reporter. It had been something of a surprise since we didn’t make contact with them at all. We guess they might have heard of our sale from this blog or Twitter or Facebook (behold – such is the power of social networking websites).

You can see it here. And here’s an excerpt:

Clearance sale
Untuk merayakan penutupan toko ini, Kino PI menggelar acara Clearance Sale dengan menawarkan diskon hingga 70 persen, mulai Senin-Jumat (26-30 April 2010).

Diskon ini berlaku untuk semua jenis buku dari 26 kategori yang tersedia. Semua buku dengan harga normal (yang tidak diberi stiker tanda diskon) akan langsung mendapatkan diskon 30 persen. Jika Anda ingin mendapatkan diskon sebesar 50 persen atau 70 persen, silakan mencari buku dengan stiker bertanda khusus diskon di sampul belakang buku….

Nice tip there from Kompas.com, which we wholly endorse, especially because it’s true, after all…

So the first day concludes with a triumph for us. Nearly 3,000 copies of books sold. Shelves were nearly empty, but refill was on the way, if not already there. There was publicity from all around and everything proceeded smoothly. But at the end of the day, we are still reminded that the end is creeping near. One day done, one halfway done and three more to go. It is not long before we have to work the night shift on Friday, 30 May 2010, repacking the remaining stocks, disassembling the furniture and… saying goodbye to our beloved first store. Tick tock, tick tock. Time flies.