Singaporeans last night scrambled to buy bubble tea and get haircuts before the shops were forced to close at midnight.
A number of food and drink shops, including dessert shops and beverage-only stores, were taken off the list of essential services along with hairdressing and will no longer be allowed to operate under measures which have been extended until June.
Under yesterday’s revised orders, affected stores had until midnight to operate. Hours after the prime minister announced the news, long queues formed outside bubble tea stores and hairdressers across the country, photos of which surfaced online.
Gong Cha, Liho, and Playmade were just some of the bubble tea stores ambushed by customers and food delivery riders last night in Bedok and Punggol.
At one point, the situation got tense outside the Playmade bubble tea store at Punggol’s Waterway Point shopping mall when an argument broke out between a GrabFood deliveryman and the bubble tea staff.
Videos showed the deliveryman telling the bubble tea staff to come out of the store, accusing the latter of calling him a “fucker.”
Meanwhile, those needing final haircuts mostly queued outside the late-night salons on Geylang Road.
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