Funny people and queues

A woman approach me and the missus this afternoon in Somerset 313 to help her redeem $10 vouchers from the concierge. She said she'd already redeemed the "limit of one voucher per person per receipt" and thus needed our help.

Being nice, we obliged and helped her redeem two more vouchers. Now, there was something strange about that woman as each receipt had to have a minimum expenditure of SGD100. If that woman had 3 receipts, she would have spent at least SGD300 in 313. That woman definitely didn't carry SGD300 worth of shopping.

Upon redemption of vouchers, the strange woman popped out of nowhere to collect from our hands. The next thing she did was to walk to the nearest bin, chucked her hands in, and began searching for discarded receipts! Mystery solved, those receipts she had were picked up from the bins.

I am surprised that people would go to such lengths to get freebies. Sticking your hands into a bin in Orchard Road isn't what I'd do to redeem a $10 voucher.

I wonder how people actually get news of promotions and bargains so they can queue overnight to enjoy the discounts. I think there must be some form of bulletin board where news are disseminated. Last week, people were queing 12 hours to get into the newly open H&M just so they get a $20 shopping voucher. On Friday, people queued overnight at the airport so they can get a 30% discount on the iPad 2.

Imagine how the situation will be if there's a promotion at the local brothel. The catch is, first 30 customers get a 20% discount. It will be interesting to see how long or restless the Q will be.