Recently, a beer promoter at a Jurong West coffee shop took Singapore’s Internet by storm.
Dubbed Singapore’s “Xi Shi”, her beauty has enthralled and fascinated both netizens and patrons, many of whom flocked to her workplace just to get a glimpse of her.
Indeed when MS News visited her on the afternoon of 28 Aug, many were spotted taking photos and videos of her as she goes about her work.
We had a chat with viral sensation Cindy Tong, the charming “beer lady” in Jurong, to find out more about her and her job.
27-year-old Ms Tong has been working as a beer promoter in Singapore for two years now.
The Malaysian told MS News that she first came to Singapore at 18 years old to work as a hairstylist.
Ms Tong took her first step into beer promotion when a friend introduced her to a manager at the Hollandia beer company, where she is an employee.
Although she has attained virality as the “beer lady” at BK Eating House, she is, in fact, not employed by the coffee shop.
Ms Tong explained that Hollandia would either contact or be contacted by various coffee shops in Singapore for the sale of their beer.
Working with these coffee shops, Hollandia would send out their employed beer promoters there to, as their name suggests, promote and sell their alcohol.
When Block 491 Jurong West Avenue 1’s BK Eating House coffee shop opened its doors in January this year, she had been assigned there.
She’s usually the only beer promoter there, though occasionally others would be present for the day, too.
Ms Tong lives in Skudai, Johor Bahru (JB), and crosses the border six days a week to work.
On that topic, Ms Tong revealed that she would leave home at 2pm and carpool with other beer promoter colleagues.
Her shift starts at 4.30pm — although she usually arrives at the coffee shop around 30 minutes earlier — and ends at 10.30pm.
Ms Tong would then return to Malaysia by carpooling again, usually reaching home sometime past 11pm if the traffic is in her favour.
However, Singaporeans are no doubt familiar with the border crossings’ tumultuous traffic situations, especially on holidays.
As such, if there was a traffic jam, Ms Tong could arrive home as late as after 1am.
Even so, she said that traffic congestion tends to be uncommon due to the timings of her border crossings.
The usual peak hours on weekdays are 7am to 9am and 6pm to 8pm.
Ms Tong shared that if her driving colleague had a day off, she would take the bus instead.
She even added that her workplace’s Jurong West location — which some Singaporeans bemoan getting to — was convenient for her return bus trip through Tuas Second Link.
As a beer promoter, Ms Tong’s job is to sell Hollandia beer to her Jurong coffee shop customers.
She fetches and opens the bottles for them, serves their beer into glasses, and collects money.
The part of her work she likes least, however, is drinking beer with the customers.
Ms Tong explained that once she drank beer with a table, she would have to do the same with every other table that bought from her as well.
“It’s like giving a wedding toast,” she laughed.
She had to make sure she didn’t get drunk either since she would have to be able to make the long journey home that night.
After unexpectedly going viral on social media, Ms Tong found BK Eating House packed to the brim with customers each night.
Photos on social media captured the crowded sea of eager patrons and even trash bins overflowing with empty Hollandia beer bottles.
Source: Justin Lim Lim on Facebook
Most of these customers were unfamiliar to her, with regulars showing up less often due to concerns over the lack of seats and how busy she was getting.
She was positive, however, about the surprising influx of people as that meant more money earned each night.
According to Ms Tong, beer promoters get paid a commission, with her making around 10 cents for each bottle she sells.
The situation served to publicise Hollandia beer, too, which she said was a less popular brand in Singapore.
It also benefitted BK Eating House, she claimed, due to the higher number of patrons.
When MS News asked around, the various stall owners at the coffee shop agreed that they had seen an improvement in business, ranging from marginal gains to an alleged 30% to 40% increase in customers.
She also called this period the most unforgettable experience in her job as a beer promoter.
“I never thought I would become this famous!” said Ms Tong.
Ms Tong didn’t have many negative things to say about her newfound fame, only that she was more tired than usual.
She claimed that 26 Aug was the busiest day at work yet, working solo and getting no breaks throughout her shift.
Despite that, Ms Tong said her regular shifts before this were already quite exhausting anyway, due to her frequently being the only beer promoter in the Jurong West coffee shop.
She ultimately found this job satisfactory and currently had no plans to find another.
“The working hours are short, I only work six hours a day. It’s very convenient for my daily border crossings,” said Ms Tong.
“I don’t have to travel to Singapore at 6am or only get to sleep two to three hours each night.”
As such, she is happy where she is.
Also read: Beer lady in Jurong West dubbed S’pore’s ‘Xi Shi’, stallholders hope she’ll boost business
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Featured image by MS News.
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