There’s honestly nothing fans won’t do for their idols – trust me, I know.
From using up all their pocket money just to buy a branded bag that their idol once carried to the airport, to queuing outside Singapore Indoor Stadium for a week to snatch tickets to their idols’ concerts, being a fan truly takes a toll on the wallet.
Some evil people know this, and try to use it to their advantage to earn money from these fans, some of whom could be just mere teenagers. Shame on them.
But it’s just going a bit too far when they try to resell cups of bubble tea at exorbitant prices, even though bubble tea is a gift from the gods.
Bubble Tea Romance
Mandopop Prince Jay Chou has done it once again – his new song “Won’t Cry” made a splash in both music charts and on the Internet for its musical quality and heartwarming music video accompaniment.
Lest you haven’t watched the music video yet, it features a girl working at a bubble tea shop, and an aspiring photographer who later becomes her boyfriend that she sends off to an arts school overseas. It’s just as sweet as a cup of bubble tea with 100% sugar!
Eagle-eyed fans were quick to spot that the girl’s cap and the logo on the wall of the shop gave away the brand of bubble tea that she worked for – Machi Machi, a Japanese bubble tea shop in Harajuku.
The brand is famous for its cheese teas and cutesy concept. Aww!!!
Pop-Up Store In Shanghai Opened
Machi Machi then opened up a pop-up store in Shanghai, China on 26 September, and as expected, the shop saw lines as long as the one at Jewel’s Shake Shack.
Granted, there were actual bubble tea lovers in the queue who wanted to try out the brand’s famed cheese tea, and there were also fans of Jay Chou who got curious about the brand that appeared in their idol’s latest music video.
However, there were also the evil people as stated above, also known as scalpers, who tried to make a quick buck out of the situation.
There were only 200 cups of bubble tea available each day for the eight days that the shop would be around, so you can imagine the crazy demand and the crowd that queued up for it. Each customer was only limited to one cup.
Apparently, the queue was so filled with middle-aged men to the extent that it stretched across several blocks down the street.
They started queuing from the early hours of the morning, awaiting the opening of the shop at noon, and when people talked to them about it, the men responded that over 300 of them were coming down on that one day just to queue for this profitable bubble tea scalping business.
Imagine how many actual fans of bubble tea were deprived of their chance to try it out.
Expensive Fan Service
If fans wanted to take a simple selfie, they had to pay 50RMB, or about S$9.70, to do so.
However, if they wanted to buy the entire drink over from the scalpers, they would have to pay as much as 300RMB, or S$58 for it.
Now that’s just crazy – who’d want to pay $58 for a cup of bubble tea when you can get some good brown sugar ones for $5.80? Jay Chou didn’t even personally touch the cups of bubble tea!
No Scalping Allowed
To combat these scalpers, the bubble tea store placed notices outside stating “no scalpers”, but obviously it was to little avail.
As a last resort, the store communicated with the police about it and limited the drinks to dine-in only, making it unable for takeaway. This allegedly worked, for the scalpers had to finish up their drinks while still in the shop and were unable to bring it out to resell to fans like they originally planned to.
Thank goodness the store was sharp enough to realise what was going on and impose preventive measures to curb these scalpers.
I mean, imagine having to pay $58 for a cup of bubble tea just because you’re deathly curious about your idol’s bubble tea pick! I doubt fans “won’t cry” after seeing the prices.
Maybe have Jay Chou sign these cups of bubble tea, then we’ll talk about $58.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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