1058. The senior citizen cafe operator

Monday, Sep 22, 2014

I had a breakfast chat with this senior citizen at the coffee shop opposite Potong Pasir NTUC. His boss was late and so we had a good chat.

1.  Charcot's Disease - bone deformation. He had custom-made shoes. "It costs me $468," he said. That is expensive for a senior citizen.

2. Getting business for his employer. 

2.1  "Nowadays, no Singaporean wants to work in the cafe in this hotel. The younger ones don't stay long or don't know what to do to generate revenue to cover the operating cost of rental and salary. He was aware of that but he did not take advantage of the employer
.
"The younger man used to close shop and disappeared for lunch for 2 hours," he told me. "I don't close for lunch. If I am tired and there is no customer, I will rest on the chair. The young man will close shop at 6 pm but I do not close till 8 pm."

2.2  As this hotel has no seats in the lobby, people will want to sit in his area (32 seats) to study, to eat their own food and drink their own water. He recounted the story for the 3rd time today.

"There was one manager about your height but bigger in size eating his company buffet lunch on my table and chair without even purchasing a drink from me. The company had a management talk and there was a standing buffet lunch provided in the hotel lobby. I said to him: 'Excuse me, these tables and chairs are reserved for my customers." 

The burly manager replied: "Ask the security to evict me."

The operator said: "These tables and chairs are purchased by my company. They are not bought for nothing. Repeat what you just said to me."


The manager stood up and left, much to the laughter of the female colleagues.