A shop in Hong Kong purportedly imposed a HK$10 charge for those asking for directions after receiving multiple reports of their staff being “harassed”.
Their staff were allegedly being treated poorly by the public and interrupting their work.
HK01 reported that the shop in Portland Street, Yau Ma Tei, was previously a ticket office for a China-Hong Kong cross-border bus company.
The ticket office closed down during the pandemic before the convenience shop moved in about 2 years ago, and many people who were unable to find the previous ticket office started asking the shop for directions.
This came in the wake of the bus company resuming its operations after pandemic restrictions were relaxed by the authorities.
Exasperated with the growing number of enquiries, the shop decided to put up a notice stating that they will be charging those who ask them for directions HK$10 (or SGD$1.71).
A shopkeeper in charge of the convenience store, Yuki, said that they posted the notice on 3 March, without the intention of offending anyone.
However, it seems their notice has rubbed others the wrong way and it was then shared on social media and went viral.
Yuki added that the bus company had initially sent their staff to stand outside the shop and guide others to their office location.
But they eventually stopped doing so, with their customer service station opposite also remaining closed.
Things then escalated with the notice being put up, and the bus company then started sending their staff down to help give directions again, with the customer service station also being reopened.
Image source: HK01