IPOH: Fancy buying books from a bank vault?
BookXcess is bringing the joy of reading to more Malaysians by opening its latest store here which occupies a historic location in Kong Heng Square on Jalan Sultan Yussuf (Belfield Street) which once housed one of the busiest banks in the 1980s.
BookXcess Sdn Bhd founder Andrew Yap said the premises has since been renovated and the first floor and basement were now home to what would surely be Perak’s finest attraction for book lovers and photoholics.
“The look and feel of the bank have been maintained to provide customers with a unique experience. The basement floor will see the customers of BookXcess selecting books from bank safety deposit boxes and from bank vaults that have been converted into bookshelves.
“Ipoh is well-known for its coffee and food, so why not add books to make this place more instagrammable? It is such an honour to be part of Ipoh’s rich history and beautiful architecture.
“We have chosen Ipoh as based on our past experience when we organised the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale here many of our customers requested us to set-up a permanent store here and we are now answering their call.
“It is not easy to open a bookstore. As you can see there are a lot of bookstores actually downsizing or closing the industry, so we can’t do this alone.
“That is why Kong Heng approached us and we collaborated to make this a reality,” he said when met at the launch.
Yap said he hoped with the opening of BookXcess Kong Heng, it would meet the demand for affordable books in the state as the price of the books is between 50 and 80 per cent of the current market prices.
“Readers can expect to find thousands of books from a wide variety of genres available consisting of novels, science-fiction, thriller, literature, young adult titles, business books, cookbooks, art and design books, and many other gems,” he said.
Other than books and unique pop-art, the basement of the bookstore will also accommodate the Yasmin Kong Heng museum.
Visitors can laugh, cry, love and forgive as they watch Yasmin’s best Petronas festive television advertisements and films.
The visitors will also be able to dive into Yasmin’s mind by going through her original Mac desktop where she used to type all her ideas. Copies of her original ‘Sepet’ and ‘Wasurenegusa’ scripts can also be read here.
In conjunction with the launch, customers of BookXcess Kong Heng will enjoy an additional 20 per cent discount on all books and non-book items from today until April 14.
The bookstore is open daily from 8am to 10pm.