For over a decade and a half, septuagenarian hawkers Christopher Lau, 72, and his wife Christina Tan, 69, have been delighting customers with their homemade muffins, savory chicken pies and crispy curry puffs at their modest stall Bakes N Bites in Old Airport Road Food Centre.
The retired engineer-turned-baker and his wife had built a loyal following despite what Christina describes as "inconsistent" sales patterns. But their small business faced an unexpected crisis this week when a political figure's social media post mistakenly declared their stall had permanently closed.
The trouble began when Singapore Democratic Party leader Chee Soon Juan shared a video discussing Singapore's food service industry challenges on May 25. In the original clip - which has since been removed - several eateries were incorrectly listed as having shuttered, including the couple's thriving hawker operation.
"We only learned about this false information on Monday when an F&B friend alerted us," Christina told AsiaOne. "I was completely stunned." Following friends' advice, the couple immediately posted clarifications on social media before reaching out to Dr. Chee directly in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
In their email correspondence seen by AsiaOne, Christopher pointed out two significant errors: not only was their business wrongly reported as closed permanently, but it was also mischaracterized as a cafe rather than its true form as a humble hawker stall.
By Tuesday afternoon, SDP's communications head Min Cheong-Subramaniam responded confirming the original video had been taken down. An amended version excluding reference to Bakes N Bites was uploaded with Dr. Chee issuing an apology in the caption: "My apologies to the owners... This was an error."
"As we are closed on Monday we never gave thought to the impact," said Christina through tears while recounting how they received concerned calls from customers about orders placed before learning of the false closure.
A Devastating Impact
$10 total sales: Morning takings on May 27 from just two customers
70% drop: Overall sales decline across two days following misinformation spread
