A netizen living in Simei recently shared a post on social media about an Elderly man living in the estate who goes around the area to collect trolleys from a supermarket at East Point mall which are abandoned by users after using them and returning them back to the mall.

She describes the elderly as a white-haired man who no matter rain or shine will go out to collect these trolleys and wheel them back to East Point mall.

She adds that the roads in Simei are not always in a perfect condition due to the weather and that the trolleys are heavy and not easy to push and urges everyone living in the estate who uses these trolleys to have a heart and return the trolleys back to NTUC after using them.

Here is the post by the netizen

“My heart really goes out to this white-haired elderly man who faithfully pushes the Ntuc trolleys from all over Simei back to NTUC supermarket every day.

Rain or shine he’s out there looking for trolleys which have been pushed to homes in Simei, filled with goodies for many families. This morning he was caught in a slight drizzle.

These trolleys are not easy to push. They are heavy, and sometimes the wheels don’t go in the right direction. The roads and pathways in Simei are not always level or dry. Pushing these too often will eventually take its toll on the uncle’s legs and knees.

Have a heart fellow-residents in Simei. Please push your trolley back to the NTUC supermarket after filling your homes with all your purchases.

As a retiree, I often wonder about the terms and conditions for being employed as an elderly or a retiree. Are we to agree to all kinds of labour, when others are deployed only to labour in air-conditioned environments, or doing easier jobs?

Perhaps this elderly uncle had agreed to go out and seek for lost/misplaced trolleys, and push them back to Eastpoint Mall. But surely, his employers can think of better ideas to retrieve these heavy trolleys.
Here are my $2 worth of ideas (these were incentives for civil servants to give ideas/solutions to make life easier in the past):

• Maybe rotate staff to do this job, and the uncle can once a while sit in air-conditioned premises to check that customers check in with Trace token.
• Specifically employ able-bodied men to do this thankless job; maybe pay a bit more to attract younger ones to do on a rotational basis, etc
• have customers pay a big amount if they wish to push goods in their trolleys back to their homes, and get a refund when they return the trolleys. Maybe this uncle can sit at the lobby of ntuc to receive them.
  We have a Tracetoken for tracing everyone in Spore because of the pandemic.
• Perhaps Ntuc can think of a tracking device for the trolleys to enable tracing of trolleys abandoned by customers and fine those who do not return them.
• customers who wish to push trolley home will pay for the use of the tracking device, and will only get a refund of a deposit when they return the trolleys.
  
  In the hope of building a more gracious and caring country, let’s consider others while we care for our own families.
  
  Have a heart, fellow-Simeians; please push your trolley back to Ntuc, or pay for a taxi to bring the goods to your doorstep.
  
  No offence meant fellow-residents, but I sincerely hope we will not reach a stage of public shaming in order to have customers push their trolleys back to Eastpoint!”

Image source: Teo Siew Lan/Facebook