At the beginning of every year, most Singaporeans begin lacing up their war boots in preparation of the Chinese New Year rituals to be done before the holiday approaches in full swing.
There’s just, so many relatives to recall, so many angpows to pack, and so many things to buy even though half the nation will be out at Chinese New Year shopping hotspots.
But if there’s one thing you should never underestimate, it’s Singaporeans’ ability and dedication to queue for things they want.
Snaking Queue For Bak Kwa
Lest you didn’t know, popular bak kwa chain Lim Chee Guan recently moved their business online earlier in the year with the temporary halt of walk-in and self-collection orders in order to control the flow of customers during this pandemic.
You might even have been one of those who felt extremely inconvenienced by the shift and had camped all day on the website, only to tear out your hair because it lagged due to overwhelming traffic.
The brand has since decided to reopen their stores for walk-in purchases from 8 to 10 Feb, and the first day of sales opened to much fanfare.
As expected of a nation that loves good food, queues at both their New Bridge Road and People’s Park Complex outlets in Chinatown were reminiscent of Shake Shack’s when they first opened.
Both outlets were due to open at 9am that day, yet from 8am, there were already more than 50 people queuing outside the New Bridge Road store.
The number further accumulated to a whopping 140 people when the store opened, extending the queue all the way to Temple Street as more joined the ranks. You know Singaporeans and our love to join queues that are long because there must be something good waiting at the end.
There were reportedly no markings on the floor to indicate where one should stand for social distancing purposes, but those in the queue allegedly still kept their distance from one another instinctively.
Over at the People’s Park Complex, the queue was significantly lesser, with there only being a little over 20 people there at 9:10am.
The differences in queues could possibly be attributed to the differences in purchase limits for both stores, where one can buy up to 50kg of bak kwa at the New Bridge Road store but only 20kg at the People’s Park Complex store.
What someone would do with 50kg of bak kwa, we don’t know either.
The New Bridge Road outlet assured customers that they had prepared enough stock for the day, and as long as they didn’t start advising customers not to queue or put up an ‘end of queue’ sign, they’ll definitely get what they queued for.
The First Customer Queued At 4AM
What’s the earliest time you’d wake up for bak kwa?
For this woman, it’s before 4am.
The anonymous woman arrived at the New Bridge Road branch at 4am as the first customer in the queue, wanting to buy 6kg of bak kwa to share among her friends and family for the upcoming Chinese New Year.
The second and third customers were friends who arrived early as well, one of them 50-year-old Lee who wanted to fulfil his yearly tradition of buying Lim Chee Guan bak kwa for over ten years.
He was unable to make his order online and specially took leave from work for the day just to come down with his friend to personally buy the bak kwa.
According to him, the queue this year was substantially shorter than it had been in previous years, as long as it may already seem.
Ready For The Queuing Wars
When at war, you need a weapon, and similarly, when you’re in a queue similar to one, you need to prepare materials as well.
Many customers were observed to have brought their own chairs from home and were sitting on them, especially for the first 10 people in the queue at New Bridge Road.
Some who didn’t have the foresight or ability to bring chairs also ended up seated on the ground or on the edge of planters, for standing for hours isn’t the best thing to do in the heat.
To keep themselves occupied, customers were watching videos on their mobile phones or even reading books while waiting for their turn.
Others who were intimidated by the long queue at the New Bridge Road outlet decided to try their luck at the People’s Park Complex outlet, and were delighted to see a shorter queue there.
Lin, a 40-year-old who rushed down there to buy her share before going to work after seeing the long queues at the other outlet, said: “It’s the same taste of bak kwa after all. If I can buy it quicker here and don’t need to queue as much, that’s great!”
Yep, nothing stands between Singaporeans and their bak kwa.
Image: Cheng Wei / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)
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