Man misses the old days when hawkers were at every corner, people could use their own cutlery and didn’t have to clear tables

A man reminisced the good ol’ days and shared his memories on social media, back when hawkers were aplenty, and customers didn’t have to clear their tables after eating.

“I want to lament or complain. I miss the days when hawkers could provide food at every corner of Singapore. So convenient,” wrote a Facebook page Complaint Singapore member on Saturday (Sept 17).

He continued: Then they started to control and move hawkers into food courts so they can manage them and prevent all of us from eating food.

“I miss the days when hawkers managed their own plates, forks and spoons,” said the original poster, noting how “creative” hawkers got in marking and colour coding their crockery with scotch tape.

The netizen added that hawkers would rush to clear tables and take back their utensils. “All tables were immediately cleared of plates, forks and spoons. All cleaned properly.”

However, the situation began to change when hawkers had to surrender their cutlery and crockery to food court management “all in the name of economies of scale.”

“Then nobody became interested in cleaning or ‘protecting’ their plates, forks and spoons except for hired cleaners.”

Eventually, tables are left uncleared…even cleaned cutlery was not properly washed and always wet, the man noted, as no one was “motivated to clear and clean tables anymore”.

“So we are now asking or making laws to force customers to clear their own plates for who – the food court management who now save cost of clearing,” he explained.

He asked, “did the hawkers win? Nope – their cost of stall has grown more and more. Customers do not win too – looks like we just got scammed with no reduction of price and now must clean and clear table,” he added, asking who were the winners in this situation./TISG

Netizen: ‘Return tray also no use, whole food court only have one cleaner’