Werken op Schiphol: See Buy Fly winkels

Werken op Schiphol: See Buy Fly winkels

Yinka Jan Sojinu werkte in een van de "See Buy Fly Shops" die Schiphol rijk is. Hij werkte er 9 jaar met veel plezier en schreef een artikel over het ontstaan van deze Tax free shops en de ontwikkelingen op de luchthaven Schiphol als winkelgebied.

Dit artikel werd gepubliceerd in het magazine 'Airports of the world.' Lees hieronder een stukje uit het artikel (in het Engels). Yinka Jan werkt op dit moment via De Werkstudent bij Yask Airport Services als airport information employee.
Lees hier het volledige artikel.


Ben je na het lezen enthousiast geworden over werken op Schiphol? Kijk dan eens bij onze vacatures op Schiphol!

Altijd al willen werken bij een See Buy Fly Shop op Schiphol? Wij zijn op zoek naar parttime kassamedewerkers voor de See Buy Fly shops.


A personal view (stukje uit het artikel)
"In the nine years that I’ve worked as a weekend employee in the See Buy Fly shopping centre as a Camera, Electronics and Gadget store salesman, I soon discovered that every working day seems to be full of excitement and variation. The place is always in motion as thousands of passengers pass through.


Many passengers drop in with the idea of buying something to take on their flight and that is where I come in. Talking to my customers enables me to suggest items that best meet their requirements. At the same time I must anticipate the different needs of customers, as they all have their own reason for flying – ie on business, leisure or holiday or for more personal family considerations. This makes the job much more interesting as you hear all different anecdotes which make you wiser.


For instance some customers are heading for the tropics and when they step off the plane within minutes they will need a water resistant camera. Another might be a city council businessman going to possibly buy a fleet of brand new electric buses valued at €1 million each. He’ll need a quality camera for images that might help to influence the council’s decision.


See Buy Fly salesman and women are like the rest of the airport staff – they are ambassadors for Schiphol. Therefore, the Schiphol Group Consumer Department invests many resources to keep staff familiar with the hospitality codes by providing training on this subject at different stages in their careers. This means more homework for the employees, but it is worth it. The fact is that the See Buy Fly shopping centre is the best selling point in The Netherlands, and for some product lines, the best in Europe.


Language can present problems due to the high level of transit passengers who originate from all around the globe. Most will certainly not speak Dutch and many don’t speak English either. In the beginning most sales staff (including me) faced difficulties in finding a way to bridge this communication barrier. But as time goes on you learn to use all kinds of creative communicating skills, such as the capability of convincingly demonstrating items - seeing is believing, as they say.


As the shops are open 365 days a year and usually between 03:30 (an hour before the first departure) and 23:00 (until the final departure has left), shift working is essential. Occasionally you see famous film stars, football players and even Presidents and Royalty passing by your shop. Sometimes you are called upon to serve them, which can add interest to an otherwise routine day.


Looking back on my career I can conclude that while working in a shop might sometimes seem a bit dull and ‘static’, working in See Buy Fly has been one great pleasure that has enriched my life enormously. The many different people from all around the world have inspired me with all kind of anecdotes about their adventures and taught me new things every day."


Reproduced with kind permission of
Airports of the World Magazine/Key Publishing

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