Need to have a nice sit down in a warm cafe with comfortable chairs and nice background music? Like to sit and chat with your friends for an hour drinking filtered lemon-infused water? Don’t want to buy a coffee?
Don’t want to buy a cup of tea? Don’t want to buy a croissant? No problem, if you’re Chinese you can select any cafe you like, have your pick of the tables, ask your friends around and sit drinking free water without any obligation to buy anything and take up a table provided by the owners for their customers… in case you’re wondering chums, customers are people who buy stuff.
Why is it that Chinese feel they don’t need to actually buy anything,. just take, take, take? Wherever you go, Starbucks, Costa etc. there are people taking up tables but not giving any custom to the cafe. In my local Starbucks there are sofas and it is quite normal to see people coming in just for a sleep – who clearly don’t care that there are customers holding cups of coffee and looking for somewhere to sit.
Rant over!