Demand to Serve

Today I went to Sha Tin to the New Town Plaza mall with Chase to buy a few supplies for our trip to Taipei next week. All I needed was a bag and he was looking for a camera. This was the first time I actually spent any time shopping in New Town Plaza. Most of the sales representatives spoke broken English and at times passed us on to someone with better English. However, the thing that stood out most was the fact they demanded to serve you. Back home most sale representatives will be nice and some will be helpful. In Hong Kong they are rather forceful. Not forceful in the way street vendors are in demanding to sell something, but just forceful in being helpful. For example, at one store Chase was looking through a rack of various items and when he was done he began to put them back. One of the employees quickly rushed over and said that she would put them back. When I was looking at some bags at the Columbia store, one of the zippers got stuck while one of the sales clerks was walking by. He quickly told me he would do it and opened it for me before I could respond. Another odd service was at McDonalds. You go and order your food, wait for it, and then go sit down. However, there are no trash cans or places to put your trays. Why? Well there are men and women dressed in suits to take those away and clean up your table for you. Yes that is right. McDonalds in Hong Kong hires people to dress business professional to clean up after guest who eat in their fast food restaurant. The same thing happens in the canteens (only they are not dressed as nice). I have gotten in the habit of just abandoning things like that because by the time I push back my chair they have the table cleaned (they really pay attention and are really fast at serving customers they think are in need). They never ask if you need help, they just do it. To most back home this probably sounds like pushy or impatient employees, but a lot of these instances came off as having good intentions. It is interesting to note that most people would at first find it a little insulting to have someone do everything for you. However, it is insulting to them if they cannot serve you. They rush to go out of their way to serve the customer without asking (I assume asking for help is a sign they are not doing their job and thus somewhat insulting) and they wont accept tips.