Ian On The Red Dot

I’ve started work at Shenton Way. The last few days, I’ve been having lunch at Lau Pa Sat and I’ve noticed people leaving free tissue paper on the tables for the next batch of hungry workers. I jest. Tissue papers on the seats and tables is a uniquely Singaporean way to book seats or, as it is more affectionately known among locals, chopping seats.

I think this practice is dumb despite the fact that some people might argue it shows that Singaporeans can be civil because no one will ever sit at a location with a packet of tissue paper. And if you think about it, a tissue paper isn’t some scary dragon guarding a treasure so why do we respect it so much as a marker of ‘ownership’ over the tables. Of course, I guess everyone is trying to avoid creating a scene when the owners of the packet return with trays of food and find their seats taken.

But I digress.

It is a stupid and inefficient practice.

Here is why.

At any point during the peak lunch period, there are 3 groups of people.

1. Those eating their food.
2. Those queuing for their food.
3. Those looking for seats to consume their food.

The people doing 1 and 2 are being productive. People doing 3 are not being productive. They are in fact wasting their time. Why? The reason they are wasting their time is because while they are looking for seats, there are actually empty seats but these seats have been chopped. The chopped seats are a wasted resource.

When a seat is chopped, the person who has chopped it is consuming it while waiting for food and while eating the food.

Mathematically this is roughly what is happening:

Tx = Time Taken To Find Seat.
Ty = Time Taken To Queue For Food.
Tz = Time Taken to Eat.

Total Time For Person 1 = Tx1 + Ty1 + Tz1 - Equation 1.

Here is the thing, if no chopping of seats are allowed, your time taken to find one seat is as long as the time the person using it takes to finish the food.

Ideally, for Person 2, Tx2 = Tz1 - Equation 2.

However, if someone chops a seat, then Tx2 = Ty1 + Tz1 - Equation 3.

Now, assuming that the queuing time for food for both individuals are the same and the time to consume the food is the same.

For Person 2, Total Time = Tx2 + Ty2 + Tz2
= Tx2 + Ty1+ Tz1
= 2Ty1 + 2Tz1 - Using Equation 3

compared to the ideal situation of Tz1 +Ty1 + Tz1 - Using Equation 2.

Since the values are all positive, it is clear from the above that chopping seats are actually adding to the time taken to have lunch.

Now, some people may say I’m totally missing the point - that chopping seats is so that groups of people can have lunch together.

Needy and Clingy humans. It is really quite sad.

Anyway, that’s just an excuse. People chop seats because they don’t want to hunt for seats after getting the food because they think it is an inconvenience and a waste of time. In the bigger picture, everyone will be better off if no one chopped seats. But all we need is just one person to be selfish and take a resource (i.e. the seat) when they don’t actually need it yet and then everyone just starts being selfish and look out for their own short term gain without considering the bigger picture.

I was about to actually comment that it is sad that in Lau Pa Sat, at the heart of our CBD, where our banks, consultancies and finance companies are located, all institutions that thrive because of the supposed free market mechanisms that arguably are the best in resource allocation, such abject resource usage is occurring.

Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Personally, despite everything my Econs teacher has tried to teach me and the arguments everyone in the finance industry make to justify their arguably inflated salaries, I believe the only things that really drive human society and our economics is greed and fear.

Chopping of seats reflect that. Fear of not having something. Greed of hoarding something.