A few days ago i was in a very crowded hawker center during lunch time and saw a round table (5-6 seats) choped by one plastic bag with some books inside.
I was already carrying my food and my bag waiting to find seats so I ended up sitting there, thinking that its a large table, they wont mind to share.
Then as i’m eating, this person came by and asked me to leave, saying that they have 3 person and need to use the entire table. I ask her if she is fine with sharing table since there are more than 3 seats, then she replied me saying that they wanna sit separately?
which I’m slightly confused by her words so i ignored that sentence. then she raises her voice and question me if iIm Singaporean, and if I know that singaporeans are entitled to chope seats in hawker center with their stuff.
which brings me back to the question. are we entitled to chope a large table with random stuff like tissue pack or plastic bag?
if its a large group of people going to the hawker centre, why wont they let one person to just sit there and chope seats while others go buy food?
when im going out to eat with friends, if there are more than 2 of us, we always ask one person to find seats while we buy food for them, and i always assume this is the common etiquette that we follow here.
Netizen comments
- Absolute nonsense. The entitlement, ffs.
- The ‘chope’ culture is stupid. Sorry but if you put one tissue packet I will just throw away and use the seat.
- I hate it too. Just share the seat already. Ignore the person sitting if you have to, its hard enough to get a seat as is. I really hate that our culture created this behaviour, and even more that it was needed in the first place.
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