Here’s an incident that left me so astounded that I threw all my evening plans out the window so I could rush home to blog about it.
Kind of.
I was at Square 2 Shopping Mall in search of the best cupcakes I’ve eaten in my life. (Some months ago, a friend had bought me some and left me wanting for more.)
It didn’t take much effort for me to find the little outlet. A sign was displayed on the counter, proclaiming: “Buy 5 Get 1 Free!”
That was great, because the cupcakes cost $2 each (an outrageous price for their tiny size, but totally worth it because they’re melt-in-your-mouth good).
I chose three flavours and told the girl at the counter I wanted two each.
She took the six cupcakes out and placed them on a tray. That was when I discovered there was another flavour I just had to try. So I ignored my wallet’s protestations and upped my order.
“Two more of the Nutella, please,” I said.
So now I had eight cupcakes on the tray, waiting to be packed.
This was where I received my first clue that the counter girl was clueless.
While packing my cupcakes, she said, “Do you want to get nine pieces? The box is made for nine pieces so it will pack nicely and the cupcakes won’t slide around and crush each other.”
I considered the suggestion. I also considered upping my order to 12 pieces so I could get two free. Might as well, since I was already getting so many, you know.
I asked the lady, “If I get 12 pieces, how are you going to pack them?”
“Six in one box lor,” she explained, as if I were dumb.
“This same box?”
“Yah.”
“Won’t they slide around even more, then?”
I wanted to go on to say that the “buy 5 get 1 free” promo isn’t very good if they persuade people to get nine pieces to fill up one box, just to prevent the cupcakes from getting smashed around. Because, then, customers can never get the best deal by buying in multiples of six.
But I wasn’t in an argumentative mood, so I held my tongue and waited for her answer.
“Er… I can pack for you in the small box.” (Small boxes hold two cupcakes each.)
Not a very good solution, but a solution, nonetheless. I went on to consider the state of my wallet, which was now giving me dark looks as I contemplated using its contents to acquire even more cupcakes.
“Hmm. I have eight pieces now. Means, I get one free, right?”
“Right.”
“How much does my order cost now?” (Sometimes I’m just lazy to do mental calculations.)
“You have eight pieces. It’s $2 each.” (Seems I have met my match in laziness.)
Sighing inwardly, I did my own mental calculation.
“My order is $14 because I have a free one, right?”
“Right.”
I thought about it more. Adding one more cupcake just to fill up the box was a bit silly. Getting 12 pieces was a bit excessive.
“I’ll just get these eight, thanks.”
So, the girl finished packing my cupcakes and went over to the cash register to ring up my order. A few button presses later, the cash register displayed “$16”.
The girl said, “$16.”
I stared at her wondering if she was stupid or just forgetful. I took out $15 and held it out to her, thinking that would jog her memory.
A look of confusion crossed her face as she looked at my $15.
“It’s $16,” she repeated.
I continued staring at her, weighing the pros and cons of being rude (funny but bad karma) and being nice (good karma but boring).
“Er…,” I said, while I thought about it.
The girl felt that she had to fill in the conversational gap. “You bought eight pieces. It’s $2 each so it’s $16.”
Faced with such infallible logic, I had no choice but to play my trump card.
I looked over again at the big sign placed prominently on the counter which screamed, “Buy 5 Get 1 Free!”
Then I turned back to her and asked, “Don’t I get one free?”
“Ah?” she looked surprised.
I waited.
Her colleague came over to investigate the holdup. The girl looked at her colleague pleadingly, as if she thought she was serving a moron and needed help.
Both of them had a short discussion in Malay. I didn’t understand any of it but it was clear that her assertive colleague had more of a clue.
The original girl then had a light bulb moment as she said, “Oh!” She turned to me and accepted my $15.
“Here’s your $1 change. Thank you!” she smiled brightly, as if she hadn’t just done the most moronic thing ever.
Oh, well. At least she was sort of friendly.
I didn’t play my rude card, either. I smiled back at her with genunie warmth and said thank you. That had better earn me some karma points.
Anyway, the outlet is called Angelz Cup and is located at Square 2 (beside Novena Square and Novena MRT station). It’s on the fourth floor, just outside NTUC Fairprice.
Try it if you’re around the area. They’re all chocolate based (I think) but they come in exciting flavours like Nutella, Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Oreos, Butterscotch and Mocha. I’ve only tried two flavours so far but they’re both great.
Uhmmmmm… looks very yummy… :D
Sounds like a marketing campaign that wasn’t quite well thought through.
Heh… buy 5 get 1 free. They should have prepared a 6-pack box. Sliding cupcakes sounds like lotsa fun… :D
lol bloody cupcakes damn expensive hor O:
I tried it when Square 2 first opened. Not nice one leh…
I found it too sweet and quite cloying. Not to mention $2 for a cupcake that could fit into my mouth and be gone in just one bite is just too exspanksive.
u shd write in n tell the owner tht they need to hire people who can do simple arithmetic. LOL.
i can’t believe she was so slow in the uptake! gosh! my tuition student’s 5 year old sis can count better than the cashier girl can! haha…
oh, and dont worry. u definitely get karma points for tolerating stupid people.. HAHA.
Alamak! How freaking dumb!!! Can’t believe that you actually have patience for that. I would probably end up being rude….Sorry…me no patience for adults. Which reminds me of an incident. We were in a nice restaurant in HK and the waitress asked how many people do we have in all. There were 4 of us sitting and we said, three more coming and she went so you have 8 in all right? We were like errr, honey, 3 plus 4 gives 7 not 8. And still she didn’t quite get it.
2bux? what?!
Thanks for letting me know. Shall make a trip there tomorrow to tell them about a certain maths tutor in the vicinity.
Let me introduce to the army interpretation of good karma .. which every army bpy must know “ENDURE”. Yep, u definitely passed with flying colors but $2 for cup cake, for me I may have cut it into 2 halfs to savour it first lol. By the way, how long it took for u to write this blog article, world longest blog article leh but I really enjoyed it, wish I had a writers flair like u :(
ytd u was kana chop cai tou.. today u kana serve by a dumb one.. hahah how come u so often kana such special one de sia.. hahhahaa suay la..
oh ya and btw… nice cupcake.. look so appealing… hahahh might go there and give it a try by buying 1… lol… cause if too much they will waste my time too… hahah
she probably got all confused and turned ard. lol.
modchip: I guess it does if you have a sweet tooth. :)
Miccheng: Haha. I think they don’t do very well in the marketing department. The shop space also looked quite boring and nondescript. I would never have bought from them if I had just passed by normally.
yh: Yeah. :( Too damn expensive. There was another shop nearby selling muffins which were about the same size and they were only $1.20.
Shelly: That’s weird. The only reason I like these cupcakes are because they’re not too sweet. I normally hate eating chocolate cake or chocolate desserts cos I always find them too sweet. But yeah, the price is rather steep. But, being the glutton that I am, I’m always willing to spend on food. :P
Daphne Maia: Yeah, it’s hard to believe that thing really happened, though. I mean, I dunno. I waas just totally amazed and rendered speechless.
Monster: Well, I found it more amusing than irritating, so I didn’t really feel the urge to be rude. I just wanted to laugh. Hehe.
malique: Yeah. It’s not THAT bad, is it?
Miss Loi: Hehe! But I don’t think she’s up to standard to take your class! I don’t think I’M up to standard for your classes, lol.
Starstruck: This blog isn’t that long… I’ve written longer ones. :P But it does take me several hours to write a long blog because I keep editing and re-editing it to make it flow smoother or sound funnier or just to make it better in general. Thanks, though! Glad you enjoyed it!
Smallapple: Hmm… I dunno. :( Think I need to earn more good karma. lol. And I think if you try to buy one, the girl will persuade you to buy two so it can fit in the small box for two. Haha.
starmist: Heh. Maybe lor. Maybe she just had many things on her mind and wasn’t really paying attention. The whole time she was serving me, she had a blur look on her face like she didn’t know what was going on.
ahahaha.. that was good reading.. :D
btw.. some ppl might try to earn $2 extra on purpose..
though some might looked dumb..
Jo Qiaoyun:)
Haha I second starmist’s comments…guess the cashier was a young girl? Might be a temp lah..just go easy on little things. Don’t sweat the small stuff :D
Hey, enjoy your weekend! And hey, I just realise you don’t blog about your conversations in the car with Nanny Wen any more liao leh! =P
If I were serving you at the counter, I would have just throw in a free cup cake just to make it 9 and fill up the box for free.
Sure, that is a $2 loss in revenue but I am sure I can definitely getting back more than $2 worth of goodwill from you the customer.
Alas, she is just an employee and typical Singaporean employers do not empower them to make such decisions.
A case of the Soaring Eagle vs Sitting Duck.
Reminds me of the time when I paid for an item costing $10.50 or there abouts. Wanting to get rid of some coins, I paid her $12.50. Logically she should return me a $2 note. Instead she returned me the 50 cents & told me it costed $10.50 so $12 is sufficient & she’d give me the change. Took forever for her to understand the logic behind it all. Sigh!
Hey Sis, I’ve seen Angelz Cup before but the price is too crazy. I love the cupcakes at Plaza Singapura, Made With Love. Its a scrapbook material place. A cafe within has really nice cupcakes…I tried one with melted mushmallow and chocolate fudge on top and the within the cake are chocolate n raisins….Uber yummmmmy!
Let me do a review and ring u a bell =)
Btw, i linked you ur blog in mine.
miss ah, i also dun understand why u din just remind her the 5 get 1 free promo rite at the beginning leh. it wld hv saved so much time. i wun waste time bah.
It looks good. But I think sometime it depend on the shops luck weather they have employ a rude staff
quoted ‘My kids’ drama Snap! debuts tomorrow (Sunday, Sep 29, 10:30am, Channel 8)
It’s a weekly half-hour drama series. I’m not in the episodes 1 and 3, and I only have one scene in episode 2. I only start appearing more from episode 4 onwards, so start on Oct 21 if you just wanna watch me. But start tomorrow to follow the series. It’s pretty cool. As kids’ shows go, that is.’
i saw ur one sence on episode 2.. haha wake up so early to catch u on the tv.. hahha teacher huh.. :P
zield: Yeah, maybe the girl thought I was dumb so tried to pull a fast one over me. lol.
Stan: I didn’t sweat wat. Like I said, I felt the whole incident was funny and I was quite entertained by it. :P
JayWalk: In fact, when the girl suggested I get 9 pieces, I asked her whether got discount. Haha. But she just looked startled and said no. Well, like you said, employees are not empowered to make such decisions, and in fact, I think most employees can’t be bothered whether the business earns goodwill or not.
Derrick: Heh… some people just don’t react well to things out of the ordinary.
Adrienne: Hey, cool! Will try the PS cupcakes. Sounds really nice! Thanks for the link! Have linked you back, too. :)
darkelfin: Er… I was too taken aback to remind her. Really, it’s like 2 minutes ago, I had just confirmed with her that my cupcakes cost $14 with the promo, and she said yes, and then the next thing, she tried to charge me $16. I just got stumped and took time to wonder what the hell she was thinking, lol.
JokeDiary: Well, it’s the responsibility of the owner to hire the right people. :P Anyway, the girl wasn’t rude, so it’s not so bad. She was just blur. Haha.
Smallapple: Hey, thanks for waking up early just to watch my show!! Sorry, I only had a very short appearance today, though. :P
Pretty cupcakes!
I must be really swakoo since I’m never heard of Square 2 shopping mall until this post! Not that ulu though, woot.
CrashWire: Actually, I also never knew there’s such a place as Square 2 until my friend passed me the cupcakes outlet namecard recently. Haha, so I’m as suaku as you. I think it’s a very new shopping mall but it’s quite nice. I wouldn’t mind hanging out there again. ;)
Gee man, I’d have a chunk of one of those right now… LOL
giL: Sure, go ahead! =P
Second place I am going to when I get back there.
HI
I actually bought these cupcake at suntec last night as foodfest thinggie. SOOOOOooo disappointed. the cake base does not even taste like cake at all!! It tasted like Kuah with no taste! The only thing with taste is the icing /cream. The cream taste is so overpowering that I don’t taste anything else if I bite into cake and icing together. Lucky I tried the cake base first.. that’s why I know I am not even gettig cake! Perhaps this is her way of making it not sweet but texture is really not cake-like. no flavour of chocolate also. Any case, found the cream too overpowering. Perhaps my time in US allow me to see that cupcakes should have tasty cake base with its own flavou and the cream should copliment the flavour and taste together.
My 2 cents worht and don’t intend to insult. =P
Anyways, to share.. I really like CCP cupcakes but they are sooo expensive. I tried another baker which make really nice choclate cupcake with icing and her price is not too bad unless you choose designs with lots of icing flowers from her wedding collection but they are soo pretty.. she can be reached at sdecadence@hotmail.com.
For some reason, these cupcakes seem to be getting from bad to worse. Dunno why. The first time I ate them, I just fell in love. Then it just went downhill with the next few purchases.
Hi all I’m the owner of Angelz Cup. First of all after reading all ur comments regarding bout my staff, i think all of u should lay back coz its her first job n maybe she’s abit kan cheong bt trying to relax herself. I’m not trying to side my staff bt i guess evrybody make mistake. Regarding my cupcakes, u can’t compare US n SG. I’ve tried doing according to US standard bt evrybody complain its too sweet. I am running a business n tats y catering to the majority of sporeans is my priorty. If u like the US type u can always email or call me to place special order. FYI my flavored cupcakes is stiil consider cheap if u compare to the others! They only do design but no flavor at all.
Dear angel cup owner
You don’t need to be so defensive. it’s a free world and everyone is entitled to commment on the level of service they are receiving or their taste preference.
Secondly, are you not guilty of doing the same thing as what you are sayig the rest of the people who post are? You are commenting that other cupcake sellers only do design and not taste. You feel that you do taste well? There are so many cupcake sellers and some actually do taste and design well. Yes, they may not be selling at $1 or $1.50 per cup but there will always be people who are willing to pay more. I am happy paying for $3.50 for upcake from Lydia of Sweet decadence because she uses Valrhona chocolate in her cupcake and I love that taste. Her cupake is also 7.7cm in size instead of your 5.5. The pattisier also does nice looking and great tasting cakes thogh her prices are expensive. there will always be people who are willing to spends for better quality. Not everyone is wanting ” cheap” cupcakes/cakes. Some of us do like a certain quality in life.
True that locals are not used to icing and will always complain that it is too sweet. Those who are ignorant will always be ignorant cause icing is made from icing sugar.. of course it is sweet. if you don’t want sweet, then don’t get cupcakes with heaps of icing swirls. it is about education.
I think Lynn was trying to say that she finds the texture of your cake to be like Kueh instead of a regular cake. i do have to agree since I have also bought your cupcake as well. Your icing is tasty but the base is not cake-like texture at all. Then again, this is our perference and everyone will have their own camps of supporters.
Like everyone else in the world, we share what we like and don’t like with our friends. Now we can blog about it. If a straits times critic went to do a weite up of your cakes and revewed it like 8 days, are you also goig to write to them to explain like you did for us? do you think they care to print your reply? It’s a free world. We can say what we like and don’t like. You will continue to have your supporters who do like. That is how the world is and how it will continue to be.
we should choose to take this as constructive feedback rather than be defensive. There is nothing you can do to change people’s mind but you can change how you take it and perhaps even take this as a way to be training your staff in future or improving your cakes to reach a higher level.
Sorry to offend if I did in any way. My humble comments as well.