Singaporeans, sometimes we trust too much, sometimes we are too skeptical for our own good.
After reading this uncle’s rant about a FairPrice weighing scale not doing its job well (it was actually sabo-ed by its colleague the treasonous tray), my friend sent me a series of pictures he took at AMK Hub’s FairPrice, simply because we shop there often and he wanted to check if the weighing scales worked.
These are the results from trying and testing 2 different weighing scales.
Beef 500g – passed
Chicken 1kg – passed
Fishball 450g – passed
Nuts 250g – passed
Oats 500g – passed
Pasta 500g – passed
Pork 500g – passed
Vegetables 250g – passed
Vegetables 300g – passed
After all that effort, we were satisfied that life can go back to normal. I couldn’t imagine dragging 5 kg of rice to weigh on that machine.
This consumer experience, at a micro level in a everyday store, struck me how much we trust in this country to run well by itself.
- We trust the government to do its job and not siphon money into their own pockets – or spend it on enormous buffets
- We trust bosses to look after staff welfare – some people are surprised every year that the 13th month bonus is not mandatory
- We trust companies not to cheat by charging unreasonably high profits – how far should Uber surge if an MRT breakdown occurs?
- We trust our leaders to figure things out if a disaster or economic recession occurs – they’ve been doing this for 50 years, shouldn’t they be experts by now?
- We trust everything to do its job properly – or forever be looked upon with suspicion because social media doesn’t forget
It is good to have a healthy amount of skepticism, to make sure we are not being taken for an expensive ride.
But it is also better to count our blessings for the things that run well so we can focus on doing what we want to do, such as planning a relaxed family outing without fear of bombs or air strikes.
This article was first published on Jules Of Singapore.