Everyone loves eating at hawker centres because of the wide variety of choices and the freedom to eat a combination of food and drinks from various stalls.
Well, that’s the way it’s supposed to be right?
Unfortunately for a Singaporean Woman called Petrina, this wasn’t the case, when she got scolded by a drink stall assistant for not purchasing drinks from their stall.
It was 8pm on Saturday when Petrina experienced what she described as “the worst touting practice” when she brought a few of her foreign friends to Kaki Bukit Hawker Centre to let them try some Singaporean delicacies.
What Happened?
As it was dinner time, the Hawker Centre was extremely crowded and Petrina and her friends struggled to find a seat.
After a while, they finally found a table and happily sat down.
Then, one of the drink stall assistants approached them and told them to order a drink from their stall since this seat was in their stall’s “territory”.
Although Petrina declined to buy a drink, several drink assistants kept taking turns to visit their table to repeatedly ask them to purchase something.
Finding it extremely irritating, Petrina finally caved and ordered some drinks so that they could enjoy their meal in peace.
Order Up
Hoping to finally be left alone after making her order, Petrina was shocked when she was scolded by one of the drink assistants.
Apparently, Petrina had ordered from a different stall by accident and not from the stall they were supposedly in the “territory” of.
Petrina was very confused by the whole situation as she didn’t even know which drink stall assistants belonged to which stall and now she was scolded for buying from a different drinks stall.
She also went on to say that the drink stall assistant put a damper on her night out with her friends and also gave them all a really bad hawker centre experience.
That’s Not All
Petrina went on to explain that she noticed the drink stall assistants using mugs and beer bottles to help chope seats for their regulars.
Hawker centres are supposed to be free seating and for them to do that is a violation of the rules.
Petrina then said that she had submitted feedback to National Environment Agency but they have yet to do anything about it and so she is taking to social media and other online platforms.
She hopes that NEA and the other authorities in charge will soon take action as such conduct and touting practices just give Hawker Centres a bad name.
NEA Is On The Job
On 22 November, Stomp reported that NEA is currently looking into this matter.
An NEA spokesperson has also pointed out that touting is not allowed at Hawker Centres and failure to comply will result in a revoking of the stall’s license.
Hopefully, NEA will settle this issue soon because everyone should be free to decide whether they want to drink Kopi Beng from one stall or Sugar Cane Juice from another without fear of getting scolded.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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