Singapore's food centre chope culture

Dear steemit friends,

Today I want to share something interesting about Singapore culture .

I got an idea to write this post because last month I met someone who recently arrived to Singapore from Indonesia to work.

As usual , during lunch time , the food center was packed and lots of people are waiting to buy the food at each individual food store. So I find an empty seat and left my water bottle there..

In Singapore, if a table has something, that means someone has already reserved hence you should sit on the other table . If u didn’t , you will get stares or people will even get angry at you. There are even few cases where people even fight because of this .

After I bought my food, I saw someone is already there . I don’t mind since I’m alone . When I reach out for my water bottle , he sensed sth and talked to me whether I reserve this table. I explained him in the future , he should get another table if there is sth like tissue or umbrella etc on the table. Athough it’s not very nice to do like this since all tables are public and people can sit where they want . But it’s something that you should aware of it if you are visiting Singapore .

We recently move to a new work building and today we find a sticker on the table on our canteen .

No chope

The term Chope is The act of reserving your place.( widely used in Singapore or Malaysia)

Since people like to reserve seats by using tissue packets, umbrellas and other items .

I really love my new work place canteen.

It’s so huge with comfortable seating area with lots of plants ..

What do you think of this culture ? Do you think is it rude or acceptable?

Although I personally think it’s rude but at the same it’s also convenient if you are alone as during lunch time, there were hardly any seats left Do you think I should stop doing chopping the seats?