M’sia Coffee Shops Only Allow Takeaways Amid Covid-19 Outbreak, Prevent Customers From Gathering

Malaysia Coffee Shops Remain Partially Open For Business, Only Allow Customers To Dabao

Singapore has implemented the concept of social distancing in our kopitiams and other eateries in order to reduce contact between customers.

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It seems that neighbouring Malaysia is taking on harder measures in their coffee shops.

According to the Malaysia Singapore Coffeeshop Proprietors’ General Association, Malaysia coffee shops will now only allow customers to tabao food and drinks.

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This is to reduce interaction between Malaysians who dine-in, curbing the possible spread of Covid-19.

Malaysia coffee shops are partially open for business

While Malaysians can still get their daily caffeine fix at standard coffee shops, the association “cannot allow them to dine in or sit together and catch up with old friends”.

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This means only dabao services are available for the time being. Malaysians will still be able to get their hawker food, but they’ll have to heat them up again since it’ll likely be cold by the time it reaches home.

Stalls in bigger cities that belong to the association might offer delivery services, but those in smaller cities might require their customers to head down physically to tabao their kopi and hawker dishes.

Some owners opt to shut their stalls completely for 2 weeks.

According to Malaysian news site The Star, the association’s president expressed owners’ concerns of “having to turn away customers who may get angry and not return to their coffee shop again”.

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Hence, some coffee shop owners have opted to shut doors for the whole of 2 weeks, rather than to open ‘partially’.

Social distancing in Singapore coffee shops

The mere thought of coffeeshops partially closing might be unimaginable for many Singaporeans. I mean, cold char kway tiao, nice meh?

That said, these drastic measures might just be what we need to curb the spread of the virus.

To our brothers and sisters across the Causeway, tahan for the next 2 weeks, we’re sure things will get better soon.

Featured image adapted from EatingAsia