Messiness

There is something charming about light novels that just makes it ever so irresistible to continue reading. The pacing tends to be faster, the language (even after translation) tends to be more straightforward, and it is also fairly short as far as written works go. I mean, that's probably why I completely enjoyed my time today reading a few more volumes of KonoSuba.

But the frivolity of light novels aside, I would really want to talk a little bit more about recent happenings.

A couple of neighbourhood shops have finally wound up within the past couple of months. One was a shop that sold toddlers' apparel/toys, and the other was a home-made gelato shop. The toddlers' apparel/toys place's demise was really a matter of time, considering just how niched their particular clientele is---toddlers' clothes are probably of a higher velocity than even women's ``fast fashion'', considering how fast they grow, and how often it is to have hand-downs from others within the cohort just to stretch the dollar to ensure that consumables such as disposable diapers and formula milk can be consistently replenished.

The home-made gelato shop though... it's such a waste. I liked that shop---I've purchased quite a few high-quality gelato cones from them over the two or three years that they have existed. They had interesting flavours, and had even brought out an interesting milk-shake drink that was based on ice-blending their gelato as well. The price point wasn't too shabby considering what they were selling, and I could see it as something that could have some staying power as a sort of hang-out place to cool off after a day's work.

The only problem was that this whole management of the pandemic just made it neigh impossible to keep things going. Restriction rules for dining in came in at seemingly unpredictable moments, with inconsistencies of rules and bad technological implementation. For those in the F&B industry, timeliness of the supply chain is of paramount importance. No matter what type of food/beverage they sell, the freshness of the ingredients that make these was a necessity to ensure that people do not get sick from consuming the foods/beverages that are made from them. These kinds of supply chains require a certain amount of predictability, partly to ensure that money/supply isn't wasted, and partly to continue complying with basic food hygiene requirements.

This can be made much worse for shops that rely on even more specialised supplies. Take my favourite sushi place for example. They use fresh fish, which requires them to be brought in from boats that deep freeze their catch as soon as possible to maintain freshness throughout the entire fishing period. Boats may come often, but the availability of supply is often booked well in advance of the boats' arrival in port. When rules on restrictions kick in with only three days to spare, such stock needs to be disposed off quickly enough, otherwise there will be a surfeit of them that needs to be accounted for using local freezers, with artificially lowered demand.

It makes things really hard to handle. It's no wonder that even the proprietor just gave up after the umpteenth restriction and just called it a day, opting (like me) to wait things out before striking forth once more.

I guess the same reasoning might work for the gelato place as well.

A pity.

Anyway, while all these nonsense were going on, a new wave of nonsense has come on---the whole ``return your tray'' movement that was somehow ``made'' into law. More precisely, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has decided to add new rules to more strongly enforce CAP 95, §17(1) in the sense of re-interpreting the offenses as stipulated in that section to include the non-clearing of dirty trays, or the remnants of cutlery and what not on the trays that have been used to carry one's food from the stall to the table after said food is consumed as a fine-able offense, as explained here.

Is a non-consumable item like a tray and associated cutlery/bowls/plates/cups considered ``refuse'' or ``rubbish'' in the sense that CAP 95, §17(1) claims? I don't know---I'm not a lawyer, but a lay reading of the relevant statute as claimed by NEA suggests over-reach of some sorts. The only way to find out for sure is to have it legally challenged, but it does feel kind of silly to push through just to find out about that. Especially in a place that prides itself on its bureaucratic efficiency and thoroughness.

Did anyone really think that the laws/rules were written without careful thought about its ramficiations?

After all, there are many more laws that exist that have broader-reaching effects than this puny one that ought to have a more direct challenge. But, ah, good luck with that. In a small place like SIN city, the issue of the principal-agent problem is much heightened. For those in the professional line, where only reputation separates one from a life-time of work and a life-time of being shunned from the professional society, this problem can cause some rather strong disincentives for those who may want to engage the service of the professional to mount such challenges. It's not about corruption... it's straight up self-preservation issues. Any client is just one case for a short period of time, but the human factor in the relationship of the professional lives throughout the entire career of that professional. It can always be said that all decisions will be made as objectively as it is possible...

...but for those of us who have 混-ed in society for a while, how many of us believe that whole-heartedly? Sure, the official response can be defined objectively, but the impetus towards the decision may come from elsewhere that is not necessarily provable/disprovable.

But let's backtrack a bit on why I find the tray return thing nonsensical. I don't know when/how did we transitioned from the ``mostly stallholder delivers your order to your table'' model into a ``mostly you self-serve'' model when it comes to ``public dining''. Was it due to the rise of the food court model that this became predominant? Because I remembered that back in the 1990s, one would usually just order from the stallholder at the hawker centre/kopitiam, tell them your table number, and then go sit the heck down. They will come by with your food eventually.

There were no trays involved. Let me say that again: there were no trays involved.

I cannot remember when the first food courts became a thing. For reference, a ``food court'' can be thought of as a primarily air-conditioned collective of stalls with seating, and operated by a company. I think that was roughly when the whole numbered tables went away, as well as the whole ``stallholders managing their own crockery'' thing. At that point, all the stallholders drew upon a common pool of serving equipment, with standardised forks, spoons, chopsticks, plates, bowls, and trays. That last item was necessary because the design of the stalls generally sequestered the stallholders behind their stalls to be dedicated cooking machines. Combine that with the lack of table numbers of rapid identification of labels, it meant that the ``self-service model'' became the norm.

Food courts being run by companies mean that they benefit from economies of scale, which meant that overall there were more of them compared to the other types of [cheap] public food places. Them operating in the air-conditioned malls throughout SIN city helped, and I suppose it was from the mid-2000s that the model took off.

Come to think of it, the food courts seemed to take the model of the fast food counter & self-service concept (think McDonald's/KFC) and expanded upon it.

I guess that it was from then on that the whole tray business became a thing.

As for tray return... sigh. Right now they are couching it under anti-COVID-19 terms (which legislation these days doesn't rely on the bogeyman of COVID-19 as a motivation?), but I guess it's really a case of...

I actually don't know what it is a case of. That's very strange. Is it some kind of morality statement hidden behind hygiene (mind you, there are cleaners who were/are hired to clear the tables before/and at present), a statement of patriarchical power, a pet peeve, a ``slippery slopes'' type set up?

I don't actually know.

What I do know is that I have gone on long enough with this post, and it is time to hit that publish button.

Till the next update then.