Markets@Jaya One Malaysia: The Quarterly Bazaar

The event I went for this time is Jaya One’s Bazaar known as Markets@Jaya One.

Jaya One holds a bazaar event in its venue once every four months. There are plenty of stalls being placed all over Jaya One from various people. The time I went for the bazaar on the 2nd of March, 2013, was the 9th installation of the Markets@Jaya One. The bazaar hosts an array of handmade items which are leaning more towards fashion. Men’s fashion? Well, there are SOME around but it’s mostly for women. From earrings to necklaces to dresses, you will not find any of those commercial branded items that people of this generation are so used to. And when there are non-mainstream items, there are hipsters. Just behind Publika, I name Jaya One as one of the places in the Selangor area with the most number of hipsters around. You may not be able to see much hipsters during regular days but once the bazaar kicks into gear, Jaya One would be filled with a massive number of hipsters. 

‘Where My Past Met My Present, Not Exactly A Great Gift Though’

If you are actually reading this word-by-word, you might be wondering why am I there in the first place. Well, for the record, I am not a hipster. Not even close to being one. I was just there to enjoy the view…of the girls. Hipster girls in general are really pretty in person. Albeit annoying at times due to most of them attempting to adopt the western culture style of talking to people(Typical Malaysian teenager stuff, only some being able to pull it off well) but as I said before, I am only there to enjoy the view. Oh, almost forgot, I was supposed to help one of my university classmates out as she has a booth for the bazaar as well. And me waking up late along with going to the event with intentions of not helping anyone but myself wasn’t exactly a wonderful thing. But more on that later.

As you can see from the pictures, there are plenty of interesting things. It’s kind of hard to believe that these items are all handmade goods isn’t it? From stuffed animals to accessories, it is all being sold by people who aspire to break into the market with their own line of products in hopes of turning their business into a growing and well developed brand. Which is probably why some of them tend to glorify themselves as entrepreneurs. You may view that as either being confident or cocky but either way, at least they are trying out in their life that has plenty of risks to bear. But if their brand ends up being successful, wouldn’t it turn mainstream and defeat the purpose of being a hipster in the first place? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.

One thing I have to warn you people though, if you have children, I’d highly recommend you to not bring them. Why? Well, for one, it is really hot. And even if it did rain, Jaya One is an open-air area so you’ll have trouble moving from place to place. Sure, you can take shelter at nearby shops like Starbucks, Wendy’s or Tappers Cafe but do remember, the bazaar itself will attract a massive number of people which means that most of the restaurants around Jaya One will be packed with people. Heck, forget about finding a place to sit, even if you wanted to order a drink at Starbucks will have you queuing up for at least half an hour. And I myself know that the baristas in this particular Starbucks are pretty efficient so you can’t blame them.

Yes, that also means that the parking in Jaya One is going to be a bit problematic unless you’re planning to come here very early in the morning. You have the choice of parking at the side of road, a favourite of Malaysians as they avoid paying for parking, and Jaya One’s own parking lot. The good news is that the parking only costs RM2 for the entire day. Pretty cheap isn’t it? The bad news however, is the fact that Jaya One’s parking lot is pretty small, especially if you compare it to other shopping malls in the Selangor area such as 1Utama and Sunway Pyramid. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not encouraging people to park at illegal areas. It is just a typical Malaysian habit of ‘saving’ money. I personally don’t do it myself for two reasons which are to avoid getting traffic summons and to avoid further traffic disruptions.

This is my classmate’s booth. It is under the name ‘Paulie Aulie’. Never heard of it? It’s okay, just remember this as the first time you’ve heard of the name. It may just turn famous one day. Anyway, Paulie Aulie specializes in bohemian handmade accessories. It has nothing to do with that Bohemian Rhapsody song from Queen. I guess you can say that it has elements of the Bohemian culture. I wish I could describe more than that but seriously, I am blind when it comes to art. The products I have seen so far in my life are the bottle-cap necklaces, floral hair-band and the dream-catcher feather earrings. There are plenty more of items that are being made and sold but there are too much for me to list down. If you are actually wondering what it looks like, you can actually see the floral hair-bands in one of the pictures.

In an effort to attract more customers, my classmate decided to set up a game of ring-toss in which customers as well as potential customers may try to throw several rings, one at a time, into jars with each jar having their own specific prizes. As far as I know, the rewards itself entitles the winner to discounts on various items that are being sold at the time. The game itself is free and only valid once per customer but it is pretty smart idea to attract customers. It encourages people to interact and participate. Even if they do not purchase anything, the mere thought of of the stall with the mini-game or just ring-toss in general are likely to invoke thoughts of Paulie Aulie. Pretty good marketing scheme if you ask me.

At the end of the day, my classmate told me about some stalls being placed at terrible locations in the lower levels Jaya One where people aren’t even aware of the fact that there are more stalls there. Even I wasn’t aware that there are more stalls in other floors. I guess you can call it luck to be able to be placed right in front of Starbucks. It definitely helped boost her sales a little bit. It was a fun yet tiring day with me walking around, meeting and randomly talking to people whom I have never met before in my life as well bumping into old friends and ex-girlfriends. It was indeed awkward but what’s past is past. Nothing more.

In case some of you are interested in some of her works, feel free to browse her tumblr or simply view them at http://paulieaulie.com/
Hope you all had a good read. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me.

Cheers, The Eyeman.