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Q: Doesn't turn the aircon in summer, surprised by not having any customers.
Has anyone ever noticed this? I'm talking about places like coffee shops and restaurants. I mean it's business logic 101 that during summer people love to gather in cool places, some would argue it's even life 101.
Yet in China I see many independent places and smaller chains that insist on turning off the aircon to save money, then are surprised when they don't get any customers. As a customer I personally won't even consider walking into a place that's probably hotter and damper than the outside because at least outside there is a small breeze.
So I understand that the logic behind turning off the aircon is to save money, and that makes perfect sense during empty hours, but they even turn if off during lunch time and dinner time. These business owners don't seem to be able to compute that turning it on will cost them RMB 2-3 per hour maybe but bring in 10 times as many customers.
Save money by turning off the aircon in your apartment, but not in your coffee shop or restaurant, I mean c'mon.
I remember going into a hotpot restaurant once with a group of aboit 10 people and we got a private room. It was summer (not hotpot weather I know) so probably 30 degrees and humid outside, and the temp in the room was brutal even before the fires were lit.
We actually had to leave without ordering because the waitress wouldn't turn on the A/C machine in the room, kept saying the remote was busted and pretending to try to get it working when the machine wasn't even plugged in. It was pretty obvious she just wasn't willing to turn it on - not her fault, I'm sure she was just doing what she had been told to do and she even called someone, her manager I assume, about it but nope, that A/C must stay turned off.
We went there keen to throw down and make a night of it. Get drunk, stuff ourselves with awesome food and very likely go back if it was a good experience. But when you have sweat running down your back in a stuffy little room who wants to stay there after they light fires and boil pots of water?
I don't understand the thinking there. We would have probably spent close to a thousand RMB that time and gone back there to do it again another time but they had to be 'clever' and 'thrifty' and cut corners with the A/C.
Well, that's China and that's how it's done.
RandomGuy:
Yeah, I wrote this because I went downstairs to get something for lunch, there is a 'micro-mall' (modern but really tiny) on the first and second floor of my office building with several restaurants. There is a new curry place so I thought I'd give it a try, but as I walked in the air was so humid, especially here in Guangdong. So the first thing I asked the staff for is to turn on the aircon and they pretended like they can't understand what I'm saying even though my Chinese is pretty good and I know it. So I pointed to the aircon and one of the ladies said that they can't turn it on. I said okay bye. Looking back at it the place was empty which is weird for a newly opened restaurant and the other places around were packed with people. My guess they won't stay in business long if they refuse to turn on the aircon. I ended up going to my usual noodles place instead.
I remember going into a hotpot restaurant once with a group of aboit 10 people and we got a private room. It was summer (not hotpot weather I know) so probably 30 degrees and humid outside, and the temp in the room was brutal even before the fires were lit.
We actually had to leave without ordering because the waitress wouldn't turn on the A/C machine in the room, kept saying the remote was busted and pretending to try to get it working when the machine wasn't even plugged in. It was pretty obvious she just wasn't willing to turn it on - not her fault, I'm sure she was just doing what she had been told to do and she even called someone, her manager I assume, about it but nope, that A/C must stay turned off.
We went there keen to throw down and make a night of it. Get drunk, stuff ourselves with awesome food and very likely go back if it was a good experience. But when you have sweat running down your back in a stuffy little room who wants to stay there after they light fires and boil pots of water?
I don't understand the thinking there. We would have probably spent close to a thousand RMB that time and gone back there to do it again another time but they had to be 'clever' and 'thrifty' and cut corners with the A/C.
Well, that's China and that's how it's done.
RandomGuy:
Yeah, I wrote this because I went downstairs to get something for lunch, there is a 'micro-mall' (modern but really tiny) on the first and second floor of my office building with several restaurants. There is a new curry place so I thought I'd give it a try, but as I walked in the air was so humid, especially here in Guangdong. So the first thing I asked the staff for is to turn on the aircon and they pretended like they can't understand what I'm saying even though my Chinese is pretty good and I know it. So I pointed to the aircon and one of the ladies said that they can't turn it on. I said okay bye. Looking back at it the place was empty which is weird for a newly opened restaurant and the other places around were packed with people. My guess they won't stay in business long if they refuse to turn on the aircon. I ended up going to my usual noodles place instead.
I have walked into places and walked right back out and colleagues and friends sometimes speak up and I just say "why sweat in a box, I can sweat outside and look at women in short skirts and breathe fresh hot stale polluted air".
When it's summer in Guangdong, the quality of the restaurant comes second to whether it has air conditioning.
RandomGuy:
Yes, I would stress "GOOD air conditioning", some mostly older places do have air conditioning but it's garbage or not nearly powerful enough to cool down the room.
When I got back from the gin festival, I went in a mall for some spicy fish restaurant and they had an air con blowing right on the table with 2 huge glass doors wide open across from the table and a huge skylight with the sun beaming down and I left and they did not understand why I thought is was too hot.
I try to explain in simple terms to the unused brain here that air con work like refrigerators, you dont leave the door open or nothing is cold.
So if you have windows and doors open in a room with an air con on, you live in an open door refrigerator and will never be cool.
RandomGuy:
Yeah what's with leaving the door and windows open. There is a convenience store near my home with some chairs and tables inside but it's always empty because even though they turn on the aircon they leave the door open and the inside feels more stuffy than the outside. I asked the owner why they leave the door open and he said so that people know the place is open, it's plain retarded, just put a damn sign or something and keep that door closed or install automated doors. Also people will actually use the sitting area if the inside is cool. Here you are just wasting electricity and money for no practical purpose.
I stayed in the Hotel “Magnificent”, a Shanghai hotel, during a summer about two years ago before I moved here. The management refused to turn on the AC even during the day. The manager even got mad at me and yelled at me in a dialect I am not familiar with.
I moved to Jin Jiang Tower, and had a wonderful stay.
I had two more weeks left to stay in Shanghai. If the management had only turned on the AC, I probably would have stayed the whole time.
But then again, maybe not. It was also very dusty.
A motion to the Central Committee:
Outlaw fat Chinese guys walking around shirtless- Penalty: 10 years Hard Labor
Walking around with T-shirt pulled up over fat belly- Penalty: Execution by Firing Squad
Stiggs:
I always wondered about, and sort of envied their complete lack of shame. No fucks are given by those guys.
They wouldn't be seen dead wearing raggedy shoes or using an older model iphone but think nothing of flaunting their flabby gut/ tits and girly arms.
Weird, but to each his own I suppose.
diverdude1:
Yeah, I puzzled on it too. I used to tell myself because they didn't go the Bible route, haha, so they were never culturally indoctrinated into believing/feeling like nudity was some kind of bad thing/sin.
ambivalentmace:
the shamers call this a "beijing bikini" because the educated are in shanghai and the peasants who took power with no education or culture live in beijing
diverdude1:
yeah,,, my chinese friends are pretty snotty I must admit, and they call out the nongmin all the time. For this, for smoking, for littering, for yelling. The new generation (educated/travelled) just really hates nongmin it seems. I do too, or I mean I hate the behavior, but it's still kinda weird for me to see chinese turn on chinese.
Didn't ol' Adam & Eve used to run around naked? Then she busted God's one rule (haha, just like a woman) and after that He made them start wearing clothes? Or something like that....
Stiggs:
The not being hung up on nudity thing is just strange for me, I hate being around naked guys and if I'm naked in the gym shower I get the urge to murder if anyone even talks to me. The local guys are totally comfortable with it. Same goes with shitting around other people - if there are no walls or stalls or whatever I'd be absolutely miserable if I had to crap with other people in the room.
That's a western hangup, maybe it comes from pious old religious nutters back in the day who knows but I do feel it's a bit of an unnatural hangup to have.
