A photograph showing over 16 seats “choped” at Punggol Coast Hawker Centre, close to lunch hour on Thursday (May 14), has sparked a growing discussion on social media on the uniquely Singaporean “culture”.
The use of personal items such as tissue packets to reserve, or “chope” a table or seat while one goes to buy food is a long-standing but contentious cultural norm here.
From time to time, such occurrences would creep up in discussions on social media or chat groups.
And it seems the culture is not confined to Singapore, with food court patrons in Japan known to have a similar practice.
Some foreign visitors, perhaps noting Singapore’s reputation as a safe city for tourists, have even used iPhones to “chope” seats at a cafe.
‘Hawker centre is a shared space’
Reddit user PocketMists described the Thursday incident as akin to a HDB BTO launch for table space: “One person reserving one seat is already debatable. Reserving multiple seats with water packets with nobody showing up during lunch hour is just selfish.
