Exactly one year after Jumble Station1 was born, Jumble Station 2 is now a reality. It is located at RS-G-1 Plaza Sri Muda just a stone's throw from the old wet market. Some 8 months ago, we were considering this location but we opted not to take a spot because then we felt it was a little too soon for Jumble Station to branch out after the failed experiment at Desa Mentari (JS Junior) where we could not find a single mother that was willing to assist us in managing the place efficiently.
Back then too we felt that the Sri Muda location was a little too quiet for our liking and it would be hard to attract people to the shop. Our gut instinct proved right, we saw a few of the early entrants pulling outjust as we were about to move in because they could not stomach the long wait for the place to come alive.
Now however, the environment has totally changed, now the likes of Mydin and other Pasarraya mini-marts have taken residence on the outer fringes of the marketplace and more folks are thronging there. Inside the spanking new market there were still many shops waiting to be rented out.
The wet market was touted to have been demolished and replaced by this new market but three years down the road, the recalcitrant sellers have refused to budge from the old and take up their rightful place in the new market. Hence many shoplots were going for a very reasonable rental indeed. This time we managed to rent a corner lot which used to be a barber shop which came complete with glass walls enabling curious passersby to see right through the shop itself.
On September 19, 2008, we opened the shop for business and Adrian, a single father worked hard at drawing in the buyers but cajoling and persuasion, with a little help from some flyers as well. The purpose of this shop is to enable JS to reach out to yet another poor community - the Shah Alam neighbourhood where exists a large low income and poor community comrpising bumis, Indians and migrant groups.
We hope that this new outlet will prove to be a blessing to these folks as much as JS1 has been to the folks at Angsana USJ1. With more people willing to give their unwanted household items to JS to help Single Parents, JS1 will be filled to overflowing unless we find another outlet and with the obvious slowdown in the economy, resulting in reduced sales, it makes better sense to find another outlet so that the funds for Single Parents will remain sustainable even as the number of Single Parents discovering JS role is increasing.
So far the indication for JS2 looks promising, customers, locals and migrants are finding our products way cheaper than Bundle or our outside rivals but we're still keenly working hard to make this new outlet as much as success as JS1. Our next move is to identify a single mum who is trustworthy and committed enough to look after the shop on a daily basis and on a small allowance to boot!
The old timers there all warned us that it would be tough to succeed there. In fact our new neighbour a Malay herbal shop is already finding it extremely hard to get business and plans to call it quits in a month or two, a Chinese sinseh two doors away switched to a shop fronting MyMydin and told us we wouldn't make it either - but we're still game to try it and we shall see how it pans out in the end!
