Getting asked by a tourist for directions once is fine, but imagine getting over a 100 queries per day by tourists. It can quickly be extremely annoying especially if you’re working at the same time.
A convenience store in Hong Kong recently devised a way on how to stop such queries from coming by putting up a sign stating that it would charge HK$10 (RM5.70) for every direction given by its staff to tourists.
According to Hong Kong media outlet HK01, they decided to put up the sign after receiving up to 100 queries daily by tourists.
The sign, which read “Fee for giving directions once: HK$10”, also stated that the company and its store assistants did not have the obligation or responsibility to give directions.
According to the report, the sign was put up by SuperOne, a convenience store located at the intersection of Portland street and Pitt street and that the store only took over the premise 2 years ago after the ticket office of the cross-border buses that ferry passengers from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland and Macau shut down during the pandemic.
Passengers who weren’t able to find the ticket office or the bus boarding point ended up asking for directions at the convenience store, leading to an increase in enquiries.
Store manager Yuki explained that she saw a significant increase in the number of people who asked for directions after Hong Kong fully reopened its borders in February.
“There were as many as 20 to 30 people that asked her for directions, with most of them asking for the location of the cross-border bus terminal.”
However, even though Yuki and her colleagues would always help, they also felt annoyed by some rude tourists who failed to thank them properly.
As a result, SuperOne put up the sign to reduce the number of enquiries it received from passengers.
Sign has since been removed
After the sign had gained traction on social media, the store concluded that it was inappropriate and took it down.
Store assistant Tseng shared that an outrageous number of people have been asking them for directions every day, disrupting their work.
“Sometimes, while I was busy completing a transaction, some passengers would suddenly interject and ask where the bus terminal is.”
She added that although she would give directions, some passengers would leave immediately without expressing gratitude, while she might have customers waiting in line.
Despite all of the criticism, Yuki explained that the store has never charged anyone since the sign was put up.
“The public didn’t experience what we had gone through, so they wouldn’t know what the situation is really like or understand our pain”, she further explained.
However, the store assistant stated that the situation has since improved following the bus company’s decision to display a sign with the new address of its ticket office and directions on how to get there.
