5 most epic Malaysian queues of all time

[This story was originally published on 7 Nov 2014]

What’s it with Malaysians and queues? Sometimes we’re so diligent in queing qeuing quing queuing up for nice things that we set up overnight camps, other times we can’t even queue up properly in public toilets or at autopay machines.

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for tech geeks and fashion freaks alike. Machines launched the iPhone 6 while fashion giant H&M globally launched its latest designer collaboration, Alexander Wang x H&M. While the queues for the iPhone 6 weren’t as crazy as it used to be (thanks to various online buying methods), it was the exact opposite for H&M.

H&M’s highly exclusive collection was stocked in Lot 10 and Avenue K, and girls were already lining up TWO DAYS in advance. A friend who works at the scene told us that it’s by far the earliest queue they’ve had, and other friends who queued up… Well, it wasn’t easy to get what they wanted. The products flew off the shelves faster than SMRT Ltd (Feedback)’s bada$$ investigative exposé on Jover Chew.

There’s really not much to say in this intro, actually… We just really wanted an excuse to make ugaiz procrastinate a little on this beautiful Friday afternoon.

So! Here’s a recap of the 5 most memorable, most EPIC queues in Malaysia!

 

1. The incredibly successful McDonald’s minion queue

McD’s movie tie-ins have proven to be super successful across the globe, and when the Despicable Me 2 toys were launched in July last year, Malaysians went batshit cray. KL, Penang, JB, wherever these yellow guys went, that’s where everyone else went too. Although these toys came with the Happy Meal (which was all along intended for kids), teens and adults were the ones lining up for the toy. And they lined up for hours throughout the month-long campaign.

Some people queued up way before the counters opened at midnight, but not everyone could get them as the toys were sold out in 10 minutes. Some kept it for their kids and for themselves, but some sold it on eBay for more than RM5,000. (?!!)

Don’t need to get too detailed on this, here’s a refresher for those who might’ve forgotten –

P/S: You can relive that smh moment here.

The guys behind The Happiest Meal (an effort by CreativeJuice\Kuala Lumpur) and other individuals and groups deserve a pat on the back la. As people only wanted the toys, many Happy Meals were left abandoned. (I mean, how much McD could you eat anyway?)

So they swooped in, collected those that didn’t want their Happy Meals, and gave them to the hungry and homeless. *thumbs up*

 

2. The early morning, pre-blue thumb GE13 queue

Probably the most epic of all queues, GE13 got the whole nation lining up to cast their votes. Some people queued up as early as 6.00am, but some came in the afternoon to skip the jam. There were 11,257,147 voters at the 13th GE, the highest turnout of voters in Malaysian history.

Young or old, physically well or not, this was the day when the entire nation made it a point to endure rain, shine, and hours of standing and small talk. It made us proud to see everyone – friends, family, strangers – getting out of their comfort zone to do their part in shaping the country’s present and future.

So many people, so many inspiring stories, such as…

 

3. The tunggu-sampai-pengsan Malaysia Cup 2014 ticket queue

Some people complain that we Malaysians only care about the Champion’s League, EPL, EUFA etc. (all angmoh football la basically). Uh… Have you seen the local fans and their passion towards Malaysian football? Ok la, the target demographic is significantly different but the point I’m trying to get across is, Malaysian football has a market of it own.

Last weekend, the Malaysia Cup 2014 finals (Pahang vs Johor) was held in Bukit Jalil National Stadium in KL. Prior to that, 40,000 tickets were sold in Pahang, 40,000 more in Johor, and 10,000 more online. The two offline queues were SO. INCREDIBLY. MASSIVE. It got to the point where people barely had any breathing space between them. It was a good day to be a lady, ’cause there was a dedicated counter for women (in Pahang at least). But for the guys…. Well… Chekkidout-

Without space, many people fainted too….

As tempers flared and patience grew thin, some people jumped the queue. LITERALLY.

Actually, it kinda reminds us of…

 

4. The “I’m Not Leaving Until I Get My Anya Hindmarch” queue

On July 6th, 2007, hundreds of shoppers lined the floors of KLCC as they waited for the environmentally-friendly bag to be finally made available to the public. The bag was retailing at RM55, which is a super steal ’cause Anya’s a designer label and their stuff are like beribu-ribu. Why were people crazy over it? Other than its tongue-in-cheek message, what else?

Dzireena Mahadzir couldn’t have said it any better –

“It’s the paradox of our times, an affordable limited edition item. This is one bag you can go to the wet market with and stick fish or meat in without guilt. Remember, it’s not a plastic bag,and you’re doing your bit to save the environment, fashionably. And more importantly, not everyone in Malaysia has the bag.” – Dzireena Mahadzir, Fashion Editor at The Star

Blogger ‘Fooman’ documented his experience, saying that he spent a solid 4 hours and was still the 62nd in line (quite in front already) but did not manage to buy the bag.

‘Fooman’ says that the line started to move (but super slowly) at 10am, and at this point, the store gave out the bags to celebrities who weren’t in the queue like the rest of them. Like that’s not bad enough, they paraded it in front of everyone else.

“Then as if to rub it in, allow them to walk past the ENTIRE line, parading the bag as if to taunt us. You can bet that got the WHOLE crowd pretty pissed but we all believed we were getting closer to getting one ourselves.” – Fooman’s blog

And then… A security guard came out… And held up a sign which broke the hearts of many, many people…

It read: “I’m Not A Plastic Bags SOLD OUT”

“Things got ugly pretty fast. Everyone was yelling and at some point the manager (I think) of the shop had to come out and apologise to everyone and asked us to disperse,” he writes, adding that they should’ve just counted the number of bags available and to ask those who were late to go home. “Most people took time off and waited since some ungodly hour to get a bag.”

Anyway, the trend’s dead. Who cares. The bag wasn’t that ethical anyway.

 

5. The super-ultra-mega epic fail Energizer Night Run queues

Were you part of the 372864384 people (made up number) who ran at the 2011 Energizer Night Run in Sepang? If yes, we’re really sorry to hear about what happened. If no, well, check out why they’ve been dubbed the worst run ever organised in Malaysia. Ever.

The run was so badly organised by Expose Media on behalf of Energizer, with the understaffed team clearly having major communication breakdown among each other. Blogger Tian Chad listed down the run’s failures including syndicated parking (alleged), lack of headlamps, lack of water stations, lack of direction, rude marshals and more… However, it was the horrible organisation and goodie bag distribution which made this event a super-ultra-mega epic fail.

There were two insane queues worth talking about.

The first queue happened when the runners lined up for their headlamps. (It’s a night run so they need headlamps.) Dubbed the ‘Tunnel of Death’, thousands of runners queued up in a tunnel with a tiny little door at the end of it. The collection counter was also set in a small, enclosed area.

“Seriously what on earth was going through the minds of these people who setup the table there ?! There’s abundance of space outdoors!! Oh that isn’t the worst part yet, the person in charge who was giving out headlights had the nerve to shout back and told the crowd to disperse cause it was getting stuffy.” – Runner Yogaretnam Ganason’s description on the bad experience

The second queue happened during the goodie bag collection. It started at the pit stop area and stretched all the way to the track where people were constantly being directed to the wrong queues. Usually, the end of the run means the end of the challenge. Not so much the case for these guys.

“While the huge majoring of the crowd were locked out, same were trapped inside the pit. These unlucky people were then question by the police and became suspect for creating chaos earlier.” – Charlie Chia

The event was such a failure that the site’s FB page got bombarded with a tonne of angry postings. Local papers covered it too. But at the very least, the organisers and Energizer themselves were apologetic and gave a full refund to the participants.

 

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There really isn’t anything wrong about quing queing aargh!!! queuing up for hours over something we want, especially if it doesn’t do anyone else harm. Unfortunately, along with queueing comes mockery.

We don’t think that’s justified as how one spends his/her money is completely not our business to judge. We mean, if you’ve saved up money for something you want (like the Vietnamese guy who saved up money to buy his girlfriend an iPhone 6), it’s your decision entirely on what you’d wanna do with it.

Plus, it feels awesome to reward yourself with something nice!

But that aside, just how perfect would life be if Malaysians could actually queue in line where it matters most?  Traffic lights, traffic jams, chapfan shop, public toilets ESPECIALLY on weekends T___T

That’s wishful thinking, but no harm in wishing.

Now, we know that there have been other epic queues we haven’t heard of, so please share with us other epic queues you’ve experienced/heard of in the comments section! 😀