NO, we are not talking about the Underworld Saga, but the outcome might be somewhat similar. In the movies, there was a werewolf who was on the verge of death but was saved by evolving and becoming a hybrid.
The same situation could be said about everyone’s favourite massive book sale event: the Big Bad Wolf (BBW) Book Sale.
Your eyes are not playing trick on you, folks! BBW is finally going online and selling over 60,000 book titles via its own e-commerce platform at https://online.shopbigbadwolfbooks.com/, which will be live for 24 hours from Apr 29 to May 10, 2021.
At an event to announce the return of the book sale event yesterday, BBW co-founder Andrew Yap said: “The pandemic was very tough on us and we almost died when the first movement control order (MCO) came about, since our events are usually very big. But we managed to pivot online and that literally saved our life.”
During those one and a half weeks, the BBW Book Sale will also be live at Tropicana Gardens Mall from 10 am to 10 pm. And don’t worry, the mall’s managing director Andrew Ashvin assures that all the necessary safety precautions are being taken and standard operating procedures are strictly being adhered to.
That being said, one of the additional SOP that visitors would have to follow is that for the physical book sale, only a total of 800 people are allowed in the Tropicana Gardens Mall Convention Centre at one time, but a dedicated area will be provided to accommodate a line for those waiting their turn.
The story untold
In a one-on-one interview with Yap, he revealed to FocusM that during the MCO, BBW was struggling to survive since its monthly expenditures could reach up to RM8 mil to RM10 mil, without having the means to generate any income.
“There were about 680 of us (BBW employees) and our operating expense for rental and the staff, etc was high with 0% revenue being generated. We were like the airline industry. No one was going to fly anywhere and no one was going to hold or attend events. And our events have always been really big.
“It was a scary time because we didn’t know when things were going to improve. But I am thankful for our agile team that was able to do their part to shift the business around and make it into an online platform in addition to the physical events that we do. This way, we can still generate revenue through selling the books,” Yap explained.
For those who prefer to buy the books online, Yap assured that the books would be delivered within less than 48 hours for locations around the Klang Valley, but throughout other states in the country, it would take about three to four days, while deliveries to East Malaysia would take about five to six days if not a week.
Reminiscing on BBW’s biggest visitor count of 600,000 in Indonesia, Yap hopes that this time, the BBW Book Sale might only be able to generate about 15,000 visitors to the physical event, weighing in factors of this being the fasting month amid certain movement restrictions and that the book sale will be within a shopping mall that has its own operating hours and SOPs.
“Although, I’m happy to say that there is a high demand of books now. We have always wanted to take on the world and change it by encouraging people to pick up books and read,” he said. – April 24, 2021
