BOYCOTT - Ai Yi Ping Seaweed Jelly!!!

You know how the "pasar malam"s (night markets) in Malaysia (or maybe Selangor, I don't know) usually have the same vendors, rotating to different locations on different days of the week? Well, there was this one incident that occured with one of those vendors maybe 4-5 years ago which I've never forgotten, leading to this post.

There is this one particular stall that sells maybe the best tasting "ai yi ping" lime flavoured seaweed jelly drink around. I've been searching all over the net for at least a picture of the stall, but either there isn't one available, or my Googling skills are awful.

Anyway, back to the story and the reason for my boycott.

One fine day, my family and I were walking around the SS13, Subang Jaya pasar malam, and as usual we wanted to get our jelly fix. Now this stall sells their drinks in styrofoam bowls only, and not in cups (do you know which one yet?) as they say you can't enjoy it as much by slurping it through a straw, something about not getting the right amount of each ingredient in each sip.

So my mum orders two bowls, from a man that was working there. Maybe a relative or the husband of the lady that's usually there.

Then my mum looks up and sees their sign, with all their prices on it, "Wait! There's an option to have it in a cup!" so she asks the guy to change the order to just one cup, easier to bring away and drink. However, in fine print, it says that the cup is for "Green tea flavoured seaweed jelly".

I pointed this out to mum, who obviously doesn't want green tea flavoured, as we came for the original, told the guy to change back to the original order.

With that, the guy threw a bloody tantrum. He said my mum was being difficult, REFUSED to serve her and asked her to get lost.

Being young and naive (and very timid during that time), I did nothing. I wish I had said something to him at that time, I wish I had made a big fuss in front of every single one of their customers back then. But I didn't, and I regret that.

Obviously, we both were pissed. Here was this stupid, fat man, waving his finger rudely at my mum, red-faced and telling her to go away. The lady boss quietly asked the man to not be so angry, but besides that, she did nothing.

Thus, the reason for my boycott. If you know which stall this is, PLEASE do not buy your drinks from them (they are the ones that sell the green tea ones in the cup!)

Being in my line of business, I know how important it is to keep a good reputation. Customers are always right. What on EARTH was this man doing? Who did he think he was? There was a long queue behind us, for goodness sakes, if we didn't want what he had already made, then someone else would have wanted it - no wastage involved.

I feel that my mum was not in the wrong - she was merely trying to order something that she wanted. Isn't that a consumers' right?