Elderly customers refuse to budge from coffeeshop

BALIK PULAU: After an encounter with a bunch of recalcitrant patrons, a coffeeshop here had to stack up its heavy stone chairs to deter customers from disobeying the movement control order (MCO).

It all started when a group of senior citizens spent nearly three hours at K’Yong Muhibbah Ceria on Wednesday morning.

“They ordered kopi ais and teh ais for takeaway after we told them that we would not be able to serve them in our shop, ” said the shop owner, who wanted to be known only as Yong.

Defiant: A combo photo showing the cleared and empty premises in front of K’Yong Muhibbah Ceria shop in Balik Pulau, Penang, where senior citizens earlier sat in a group.

“But when we completed their order, they proceeded to gather at the stone tables and chairs outside our shop.”

Yong, 34, said that these customers were told politely that it was against the order to gather in groups and linger around.

“We asked them to leave several times but they did not listen.

“They were also not bothered when we showed them that someone had posted their photos on social media.

“They sat there from 9am and only left at noon, ” she said when met at her shop yesterday.

Some of them were regular customers who would gather with their friends outside the shop almost every morning.

“We stacked the stone chairs upside down on one another soon after they left.

“They are very heavy, so I doubt anyone would be able to move them. This was necessary to ensure all of us do not get into trouble.” - Star