When people know that bubble tea stalls would be closed, they did the next most logical thing:
They learn how to make bubble tea themselves at home because that’s a valuable skill that can save them lots of money even after the Circuit Breaker period is over.
But there are some who decided to do the next most illogical thing: buying that last cup of bubble tea.
Did they think that if they bury that last cup under soil, it’ll grow a bubble tea tree or what?
And it was chaos yesterday when people now treated bubble tea as toilet paper as they went to various outlets to queue for it:
This was Tiger Sugar’s queue last night.
It wasn’t something that you’ve not expected, but it seems like food delivery personnel were affected by this sudden crowd.
After all, they’re paid per order; a crowd meant that they’d have to wait longer for an order, and that’d lead to less earnings for that day.
And tempers flare.
Badly.
Gangsta GrabdFood Rider Wants to Fight PlayMade Staff
I know the sub-heading sounds like it’s written by a primary school student, but the entire incident does look and feel like one.
Here’s the video that’s been circulating online:
It was unknown what happened prior to that; maybe the outlet run out of Pink Cactus Pearls lah I don’t know, but it was so serious that the GrabFood rider just kept on shouting, “Come lah!”
That was how I tried to pick a fight with my friends in primary school, but I digress.
Here’s the incident from another angle:
It’s now revealed that the rider is a 38-year-old man, and the incident happened at the Playmade bubble tea shop in Waterway Point at about 9:40pm.
He’s been arrested for public nuisance and police investigations are ongoing.
Now, if that outlet sounds familiar, then I’m glad you’ve been coming to our app daily.
It’s the same outlet that has been fined $1,000 for breaching safe-distancing measures.
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PlayMade Has Responded
PlayMade has responded in Facebook, but it didn’t address the incident directly nor explain what happened. Instead, it was revealed that there was a surge of order—600 cups in an hour on the last hour of operations.
Here’s their post:
What they wrote:
All of us at Playmade would like to thank you for the incredible support you have shown us all this while. Due to the unanticipated surge in demand we faced yesterday, we apologise for not being able to fulfill everyone’s orders and to get them to you on time. Our team was working tirelessly alongside delivery riders to fulfill your orders, while adhering to the new safe distancing guidelines and adjusted manpower strength. Understandably, we have disappointed some of you along the way. We sincerely apologise for this.
In light of the recent video footages, we understand that there was an incident between our staff at Waterway Point and the delivery rider. During this time, our team had received over 150 different orders (an average of 600 cups) via delivery alone within the last hour of closing, despite efforts to stop orders from coming through. This had brought immense pressure on both our team and delivery riders to complete within that short time frame to closing. Providing good customer and delivery partner experience is very important to us.
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We sincerely apologise to all customers and riders who were as a result, directly and indirectly affected by this incident. We are thoroughly investigating this incident with the relevant authorities involved.
We recognise that we have not always been able to deliver the experience we have set out to achieve. We promise to use this time to improve and work on the necessary changes during the extended circuit breaker to better serve everyone of you, our customers and delivery partners.
Once this is over, we hope to be able to serve you playfully made pearls and flavours again. Till then, stay safe and healthy!
From all of us at Playmade
And over at GrabFood, they’re now looking into the incident, and also said that there was a surge of order yesterday night.
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Lest you’re not aware, this incident wasn’t the only one that has gone viral. Here’s one more, but it was merely people losing their temper which is understandable:
In the meantime, if you’re reading this, you most probably won’t be able to drink any bubble tea for weeks. Why not take this opportunity to learn more about the drink by watching this video on the 10 facts about bubble tea:
(Check out our YouTube channel for more interesting and entertaining videos!)
