Singapore — A member of the public shared about an incident he witnessed and what he did to rectify the issue while he was having lunch at a canteen.
He put up a post detailing the incident in a Facebook group named “Complaint Singapore“.
The netizen had been having a late lunch at canteen 13 which is located on Tuas South Street 5. He was dining alone and sat at a table that was near the drink stall.
He then noticed two men trying to take a pau from the steam cabinet. While doing this, the Pau was dropped on the floor. The one who had been using the tongs to retrieve the Pau did not realize that the netizen had been watching him put the Pau back into the steam cabinet using the tongs.
The man’s friend did notice that the netizen had been watching, but did not alert his friend about this. Instead, he placed the dropped pau at the lowest rack. The netizen thought that he might have done so since the pau would have a lower chance of being purchased by an unsuspecting customer.
The netizen continued to observe the two of them. The two men paid for a new pau and a drink and sat behind him for a couple of minutes before leaving. After they left, the netizen approached the girl who was manning the store to inform her of what he had witnessed.
To his shock, the store assistant told him that pau’s that were unsold by the end of the day would be returned and urged him to drop the matter. The netizen then told her he wanted to purchase the pau to prevent anyone else from consuming it. He also thought that it was possible that all the other food products in the steam cabinet were already contaminated due to the warm air that was being circulated inside.
Despite his kind offer, the shop assistant refused to accept the netizen’s money and assured him that she would settle the situation and return it at the end of the day. The netizen became aggravated and took out the pau to show her, and realized that there were two curly strands of hair stuck to the pau.
He passed the pau to the store assistant and insisted on paying for it. She then grabbed the pau using her bare hand and deposited it on the shelf beside her that displayed food products such as packed bread, cakes, and other dried food.
After the incident, the netizen ruminated more about the incident and came up with several unanswered questions.
One of them was regarding why the store was still based on self-service when even buffets are no longer self-service due to the ongoing pandemic.
He also felt that the man was extremely selfish and inconsiderate to the point of being unwilling to pay for his mistake.
The netizen also felt that even the store assistant did not pay attention to hygiene, and wonders if her behaviour could have led to others falling sick.
He also wondered if there was any other action he could have taken when he witnessed the incident that day.
At the end of the post, the netizen apologized for not having a photo to back up his claims, as he was adamant about having the contaminated food removed from the steam cabinet to prevent others from falling ill. However, he added a picture of the canteen, which he had obtained from Google.
Some netizens felt that he should have stepped immediately once he witnessed the incident and confronted the two men.
However, a few felt that avoiding a confrontation would be better in some cases if the other party is reluctant to admit their mistakes.
A few others urged him to bring the matter up to the relevant authorities and to make a report regarding the incident.
Many other netizens thanked him for being so considerate and urged him to stop thinking about the issue, since he had done what he could.
Some netizens also mentioned that they had witnessed something similar and warned others to be careful.
You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG