‘Is this your first time visiting a hawker centre?’ — Hawker stall staff asks customer after wrongly serving 100 Plus instead of Kopi-O

SINGAPORE: A netizen took to social media to air his grievances after allegedly being treated rudely by a hawker stall attendant who not only got his beverage order wrong but also asked him in a “condescending” tone, “Is this your first time visiting a hawker center?”

Mr Turtle Tan wrote in a Sunday (June 11) post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page that the incident occurred while he was at breakfast at a hawker stall at the Hougang Ci Yuan Hawker Center one morning.

Mr Tan told the female attendant at a beverage stall at the hawker centre that he wanted a cup of Kopi-O.

“The lady hawker then said, ‘One cup of Kopi-O, number 100…’

I was curious about the ‘100’ part and thought she was referring to the price of the Kopi-O.”

However, he was given a 100 Plus, an isotonic sports drink, instead of a coffee.

He then told the woman that he ordered a Kopi-O, not a 100 Plus.

“The lady hawker seemed to get angry and snapped at me, saying, ‘You said you wanted a 100 Plus? Now that you hear the price is S$2.7, you suddenly want to change it to Kopi-O, is it?’”

While fighting frustration, Mr Tan clarified that he had not understood when she said “Kopi-O 100” as he thought she was referring to the price.

That was when the woman said, “Is this your first time visiting a hawker center?”

“I think next time I’ll either bring my own coffee or order a beverage from the Muslim food store located just behind them when I visit this hawker center again. I can’t believe a soft drink now costs $2.7 at this hawker center. Just last week, when I had a meal at the Hougang 1 food court, the 100 Plus was only $1.50 per can,” he wrote, adding at the end that he thinks he’ll “file a complaint through the OneService app about this incident.”

The Independent Singapore has reached out to Mr Tan for further comment. /TISG

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