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Why in Hong Kong people choose to sleep at McDonald's instead of going home
- anandaverma18 8y agoIs it real? I never saw one doing that. If its real then I know why. Rooms in Hong Kong are like matchbox size and smelly. McD is a better place to sleep I guess.
- ksec 8y agoOf Coz it is and has been for years. I once did for a few weeks.
- carlospwk 8y agoCan you tell me more about it? I’m curious to as why McD let’s you sleep in the restaurant, here they would just kick you out.
- ksec 8y agoThese McDonald opens 24 hours, so it is not like they are sleeping inside while the store are closed. Most of these people comes in very late, after 22:00 or even later at 24:00. They watch some video on their phones for an hour or so before sitting there falling to sleep. Since most of the overnight business are take away, so seats are rarely needed by customers. In Income / Big Mac price model, McDonald in HK are one of the cheapest if not the cheapest in the world. However they do kick you out if you smells bad, i.e causing disturbance to other customers. I wish I could do something to help Hong Kong, but like most people here, we felt pretty much powerless.
- mulderc 8y agoVery real, There was a McD across the street from my hotel in Mong Kok (actually Tai Kok Tsui but hotel claimed it was Mong Kok). Often saw people spending the night in the McD, mostly older women. Rooms can be very small in HK but I rarely found them smelly but they can get pricy.
- puranjay 8y agoThe article talks about a lawyer with a 292 sq ft apartment that cost $760k 292 sq ft!
- Zitrax 8y ago≈ 27 ㎡ @ €657k
- k_sze 8y agoFree air-con and free water. In HK, some subdividing landlords charge tenants for electricity for ~10x the price of the power company, which really should be made an illegal practice.
- robjan 8y agoIt is illegal, the government is just not very good at enforcing laws which protect the poor.
- extralego 8y agoSame in the US, of course. We just have a privatized legal system whereby hotshot attorneys may consider certain pursuits if determined lucrative, and a privatized criminal justice system that favors locking people in concrete cubes for large chunks of their lives. There’s nothing more humane about it. The effect is merely that “poor people” become “bad people”, “rich people” becomes “heroes”, and suddenly everybody got what they deserved.
- emmanuel_1234 8y agoAdding to that... You have illegal structure on many, many rooftops in the city (i.e.: slums). Those are very easy to spot, as there is always a higher tower being built from which to look down on those. They are rented, and despite being super illegal, they are contracted with leases and stamp duty and everything. This is next level of slumlords.
- Bromskloss 8y agoHuh, price control?
- wollw 8y ago> One McRefugee renting a subdivided flat in To Kwa Wan, Hung said, told volunteers that her landlord charged her HK$16 for a unit of electricity, compared to about HK$1.10 charged by the city’s two main power suppliers. Sounds like they're trying to peg the HKD to the USD Silver Unit[1][2][3]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1792#Authorization_and_free_coinage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1792#Authorizat... [2]https://silverprice.org/silver-price-per-ounce.html https://silverprice.org/silver-price-per-ounce.html [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Silver_Eagle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Silver_Eagle edit: I can't help but notice that 2.5g is the weight in silver of the old Liberty Disme that I pick up for about $1 (paper) when I feel like putting some silver into the local economy (used as 10c). A 'spot' of silver perhaps.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pjc50 8y agoThis is spectacularly off topic, but the HKD is actually pegged to the real US dollar.
- extralego 8y agoOf course, if American McDonald’s allowed such a thing, they’d have to start charging because there’d no longer be room for dining.
- fyfy18 8y agoThis how I feel about Uber Eats drivers in my local McDonalds. There’s usually 6-8 at a time, so at busy times there are often not any tables spare.
- lsc 8y agoThey're paying customers, seems like they have as much a right to sit down as anyone else. For that matter, they occupy that seat for a shorter period of time than someone eating would, too. Most of the 'full' places in America, especially more casual places where there isn't waitstaff that reconfigures seating for every party seems to have a lot of underutilized tables. One person sitting at a table for four is common, and sitting next to that person is seen as awkward. That table is "Taken" - and in a lot of ways, I understand; I'm an introvert, too... and sometimes I'm not really up for conversation with my lunch. But, I find that reading the internet on your phone (and by extension, using an e-reader) are a lot more acceptable than those sorts of things used to be. With those affordances, I think it's easier than it used to be to politely say "I'm not really up for conversation today"
- baud147258 8y agoWhen such place is packed, I have no qualm to sit next to someone alone on a table for four, asking beforehand. Or even the other way around: if I'm alone on a table for four, it wouldn't bother me too much to share it.
- koosnel 8y agoThis is sad. They should come to Africa there is a lot of space here.
- alexpetralia 8y agoMcDonald's are like public utilities: you get wifi, electrical outlets, seats, air conditioning, bathrooms. All for the admission price of a $1 meal.
- Zanni 8y agoI used to refer to them as American Embassies when traveling. If you're lost, tired, hot, thirsty, hungry, have to use the bathroom and don't have change for a public WC but you stumble on a McDonald's, they'll have all the amenities you mention and often a map of the surrounding area.
- singhrac 8y agoThe (slightly more) premium version is Starbucks, which has all the above but is more likely to have a clean bathroom. Also more importantly, somehow Starbucks more reliably has WiFi you can connect to without having a working phone number to authenticate, which was a huge problem in Switzerland (I tried a McDonalds first, too, but needed a phone number).
- beart 8y agoAll of the Starbucks I visited in Europe had locks on the bathrooms.
- robocat 8y agoMcDonald's in Patong, Thailand has no toilet (we went there last night). Not sure if lack of toilet is common here, but it wouldn't surprise me.
- shodan666 8y agoMcDonald's around the world is much more expensive than $1 meal. Cost of Cheeseburger in McDonald's around the world is usually around around 1h of minimum wage.
- vorg 8y agoDifferent countries and cities have different practices concerning what you get. Across the border in mainland China, the toilets will often be cordoned off for months at a time, and they skimp on providing decent air-con. In Tokyo, they throw everyone out from 2am to 5am for "cleaning".
- phobosdeimos 8y agoI guess HK has no social housing? The free market has no ethics or compassion so the government has to make rules.
- baybal2 8y agoIt has, and a lot (in comparison to America.) Just not enough for everybody. Believe me or not, some of those 50-60 storey high apartment blocks have double digit vacancy rates, being bought as investment property. There are multiple laws imposing symbolic taxes on vacant flats, but even they are not enforced.
- baybal2 8y agoOnce on my memory, HK govt had a crazy idea to "dump all homeless people to Shenzhen," but they were given middle finger by previous mayor, (one that went in front of firing squad.) with a dismissive comment "send your millionaires instead"
- ksec 8y agoAnd HK has been voted Number 1 in Free Market trading for god knows how many consecutive years. >I guess HK has no social housing? HK has social housing. But they have been building very little of it. The government skewed numbers for time from application to moving in are 7+ years. In reality it is even longer than that. The Social Housing unwritten rules are prioritised to anyone coming from mainland china first, then families in HK, and finally singles. So if you are some elderly singles, you are very likely to be dead before moving into a social housing. Now of course any singles getting any job with minimum wages you would have been over qualified for Social Housing. But a lot of times they are not full time job, and even if you do, you can barely afford to paid the rent of apartments. And even if you can, your landlord are highly unlikely to rent to these people without stable income. So you can live on the street right, like Homeless people? Well actually living on Street or what's called public space is against the law in HK.
- ralusek 8y agoFree markets are not devoid of ethics. They function in large part on trust, accountability, competence, loyalty, liberty, determination, etc... Of course there are perverse elements, but so too is the case with the state.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- vegardx 8y agoA store manager (in Norway) once told me that they had a policy to never kick people out, regardless of being paying guests or not. He said this was a policy coming from top down and that they never refused anyone to use the toilet, WiFi or power outlets. But they never spoke publicly about it, since they didn't want too much press about it. But knowing this put the chain in a different light for me. Seeing people just sitting around reminds me of it. It's a good reminder me that corporations aren't just good or bad.
- goldfeld 8y agoHave you wondered how much marketing goes into the smell of McDonalds? It's a mind corrupting scent and they want to spread it because marketing is even more their core business than actually feeding people. It's feeding in as much as pop soda is hydration.
- fnord123 8y ago>Have you wondered how much marketing goes into the smell of McDonalds? It smells terrible so I don't get it. Is there a component of triggering addicts like how smokers like the burning cat shit smell of cigarettes?
- bananadonkey 8y agoThe shit of my burning cats does not smell like cigarettes, but the cats do
- cecja 8y agoAh, I smell a mind corrupting comment right there. Are you literally shaking right now because of the smell of a McDonalds? Come on at least try to have facts or at leastt an argument instead of just hate.
- Aeolun 8y agoThis mind corrupting comment induced me to find the closest McDonalds and eat there though.
- PunchTornado 8y agoI'm confused. How is sleeping on a chair better than sleeping in the smallest, dirtiest apartment, but on a bed?
- angled 8y agoAn amusing few paragraph in this context: [...] REASONS FOR AND BENEFITS OF THE ACQUISITION AND THE [MCDONALD's] FRANCHISE CITIC is China’s largest conglomerate operating domestically and overseas, with businesses in financial services, resources and energy, manufacturing, engineering contracting and real estate as well as others. CITIC is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index . China’s consumer sector is growing rapidly, benefiting from continued urbanization, an expanding middle class and increasing disposable household incomes. China’s working population is larger than those of the US and Europe combined, yet spending levels of China’s middle class are a small fraction of those in more developed countries. As disposable incomes rise, people will continue to spend more on leisure and on dining out, and there is particularly great growth potential in tier 3 and 4 cities. As such, the market for Western Quick Service Restaurants is expected to continue to grow rapidly. This investment offers a chance to deepen CITIC’s exposure to the consumer sector, which is poised to be the main driver of China’s economy for decades to come. This transaction is also another step in CITIC’s efforts to better balance the financial and non-financial businesses. CITIC sees opportunities for synergies with its existing businesses. McDonald’s extensive network and consumer base will provide CITIC with invaluable insight, which CITIC will leverage to the benefit of its existing businesses. [...] http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2017/0109/LTN20170109129.pdf http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2017/0109/LT...
- theshadowknows 8y agoI can see this being a problem in most cities. I almost moved to Copenhagen on $108,000/yr (US) job offer and feel like it would have been a massive mistake just looking at cost of living alone. The taxes and rent prices in these cities is outrageous.
- shanghaiaway 8y agoThese cities? Copenhagen is nothing like Hong Kong. The only similarity is... it's not the US. I guess that's how you view the world.
- theshadowknows 8y agoBoth cities are very expensive and have housing issues. I’m not saying they are the same or even all that similar in most ways, but all major world cities have big housing problems just some more than others. Good job being an asshole, though.
- shanghaiaway 8y agoSF is very expensive and has housing issues. NYC. London. Toronto. And so on.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- neya 8y ago> Researchers were able to interview 53 McRefugees > McRefugees Well, that's an interesting term..
- jlebrech 8y agothere should be an establishment that's open 24hrs for different purposes, Cafe, sandwich shop, bar, club, hotel.
- modells 8y agoHappy Donuts in Palo Alto and Safeway in Menlo Park and Mountain View on El Camino have a similar phenomenon but it’s usually only students whom have a place but sleep while studying. There are many more homeless people whom have no options for housing or refused Section 8, and so seek shelter during heat of summer days or less frequent cold winter nights. There must a nonzero fraction of thousands whom consciously choose to be leather tramps and live rough... not all homeless people are in unfortunate circumstances, crazy, on drugs, criminals, peter pan’s or defective. You’re reading from a rubber tramp right now. :)