
Why in Hong Kong people choose to sleep at McDonald's instead of going home - gscott
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2158365/number-people-sleeping-hong-kong-mcdonalds-branches
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vegardx
A store manager (in Norway) once told me that they had a policy to never kick
people out, regardless of being paying guests or not. He said this was a
policy coming from top down and that they never refused anyone to use the
toilet, WiFi or power outlets.

But they never spoke publicly about it, since they didn't want too much press
about it. But knowing this put the chain in a different light for me. Seeing
people just sitting around reminds me of it. It's a good reminder me that
corporations aren't just good or bad.

~~~
goldfeld
Have you wondered how much marketing goes into the smell of McDonalds? It's a
mind corrupting scent and they want to spread it because marketing is even
more their core business than actually feeding people. It's feeding in as much
as pop soda is hydration.

~~~
fnord123
>Have you wondered how much marketing goes into the smell of McDonalds?

It smells terrible so I don't get it. Is there a component of triggering
addicts like how smokers like the burning cat shit smell of cigarettes?

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k_sze
Free air-con and free water. In HK, some subdividing landlords charge tenants
for electricity for ~10x the price of the power company, which really should
be made an illegal practice.

~~~
robjan
It is illegal, the government is just not very good at enforcing laws which
protect the poor.

~~~
extralego
Same in the US, of course.

We just have a privatized legal system whereby hotshot attorneys may consider
certain pursuits if determined lucrative, and a privatized criminal justice
system that favors locking people in concrete cubes for large chunks of their
lives.

There’s nothing more humane about it. The effect is merely that “poor people”
become “bad people”, “rich people” becomes “heroes”, and suddenly everybody
got what they deserved.

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alexpetralia
McDonald's are like public utilities: you get wifi, electrical outlets, seats,
air conditioning, bathrooms. All for the admission price of a $1 meal.

~~~
Zanni
I used to refer to them as American Embassies when traveling. If you're lost,
tired, hot, thirsty, hungry, have to use the bathroom and don't have change
for a public WC but you stumble on a McDonald's, they'll have all the
amenities you mention and often a map of the surrounding area.

~~~
singhrac
The (slightly more) premium version is Starbucks, which has all the above but
is more likely to have a clean bathroom. Also more importantly, somehow
Starbucks more reliably has WiFi you can connect to without having a working
phone number to authenticate, which was a huge problem in Switzerland (I tried
a McDonalds first, too, but needed a phone number).

~~~
beart
All of the Starbucks I visited in Europe had locks on the bathrooms.

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neya
> Researchers were able to interview 53 McRefugees

> McRefugees

Well, that's an interesting term..

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anandaverma18
Is it real? I never saw one doing that. If its real then I know why. Rooms in
Hong Kong are like matchbox size and smelly. McD is a better place to sleep I
guess.

~~~
ksec
Of Coz it is and has been for years. I once did for a few weeks.

~~~
carlospwk
Can you tell me more about it? I’m curious to as why McD let’s you sleep in
the restaurant, here they would just kick you out.

~~~
ksec
These McDonald opens 24 hours, so it is not like they are sleeping inside
while the store are closed.

Most of these people comes in very late, after 22:00 or even later at 24:00.
They watch some video on their phones for an hour or so before sitting there
falling to sleep.

Since most of the overnight business are take away, so seats are rarely needed
by customers.

In Income / Big Mac price model, McDonald in HK are one of the cheapest if not
the cheapest in the world.

However they do kick you out if you smells bad, i.e causing disturbance to
other customers.

I wish I could do something to help Hong Kong, but like most people here, we
felt pretty much powerless.

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PunchTornado
I'm confused. How is sleeping on a chair better than sleeping in the smallest,
dirtiest apartment, but on a bed?

~~~
majos
You have to pay much more to rent the apartment containing the bed?

~~~
duxup
The article notes that many of them have apartments. It sounds like they are
already paying.

~~~
robjan
They are paying but it's 34°C and 80-100% humidity currently in HK. A lot of
these subdivided flats don't have proper access to air conditioning units.

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angled
An amusing few paragraph in this context:

[...]

REASONS FOR AND BENEFITS OF THE ACQUISITION AND THE [MCDONALD's] FRANCHISE

CITIC is China’s largest conglomerate operating domestically and overseas,
with businesses in financial services, resources and energy, manufacturing,
engineering contracting and real estate as well as others. CITIC is a
constituent of the Hang Seng Index . China’s consumer sector is growing
rapidly, benefiting from continued urbanization, an expanding middle class and
increasing disposable household incomes. China’s working population is larger
than those of the US and Europe combined, yet spending levels of China’s
middle class are a small fraction of those in more developed countries. As
disposable incomes rise, people will continue to spend more on leisure and on
dining out, and there is particularly great growth potential in tier 3 and 4
cities. As such, the market for Western Quick Service Restaurants is expected
to continue to grow rapidly. This investment offers a chance to deepen CITIC’s
exposure to the consumer sector, which is poised to be the main driver of
China’s economy for decades to come. This transaction is also another step in
CITIC’s efforts to better balance the financial and non-financial businesses.

CITIC sees opportunities for synergies with its existing businesses.
McDonald’s extensive network and consumer base will provide CITIC with
invaluable insight, which CITIC will leverage to the benefit of its existing
businesses.

[...]

[http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2017/0109/LT...](http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2017/0109/LTN20170109129.pdf)

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modells
Happy Donuts in Palo Alto and Safeway in Menlo Park and Mountain View on El
Camino have a similar phenomenon but it’s usually only students whom have a
place but sleep while studying.

There are many more homeless people whom have no options for housing or
refused Section 8, and so seek shelter during heat of summer days or less
frequent cold winter nights.

There must a nonzero fraction of thousands whom consciously choose to be
leather tramps and live rough... not all homeless people are in unfortunate
circumstances, crazy, on drugs, criminals, peter pan’s or defective. You’re
reading from a rubber tramp right now. :)

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phobosdeimos
I guess HK has no social housing? The free market has no ethics or compassion
so the government has to make rules.

~~~
ralusek
Free markets are not devoid of ethics. They function in large part on trust,
accountability, competence, loyalty, liberty, determination, etc... Of course
there are perverse elements, but so too is the case with the state.

~~~
phobosdeimos
Well lets put it this way: thanks to the government I have a bathroom and
kitchen. Slumlords don't need to get re-elected.

~~~
ralusek
You cannot thank the government without thanking the people that pay the
government.

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koosnel
This is sad. They should come to Africa there is a lot of space here.

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theshadowknows
I can see this being a problem in most cities. I almost moved to Copenhagen on
$108,000/yr (US) job offer and feel like it would have been a massive mistake
just looking at cost of living alone. The taxes and rent prices in these
cities is outrageous.

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shanghaiaway
These cities? Copenhagen is nothing like Hong Kong. The only similarity is...
it's not the US. I guess that's how you view the world.

~~~
theshadowknows
Both cities are very expensive and have housing issues. I’m not saying they
are the same or even all that similar in most ways, but all major world cities
have big housing problems just some more than others. Good job being an
asshole, though.

~~~
shanghaiaway
SF is very expensive and has housing issues. NYC. London. Toronto. And so on.

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extralego
Of course, if American McDonald’s allowed such a thing, they’d have to start
charging because there’d no longer be room for dining.

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fyfy18
This how I feel about Uber Eats drivers in my local McDonalds. There’s usually
6-8 at a time, so at busy times there are often not any tables spare.

~~~
lsc
They're paying customers, seems like they have as much a right to sit down as
anyone else. For that matter, they occupy that seat for a shorter period of
time than someone eating would, too.

Most of the 'full' places in America, especially more casual places where
there isn't waitstaff that reconfigures seating for every party seems to have
a lot of underutilized tables. One person sitting at a table for four is
common, and sitting next to that person is seen as awkward. That table is
"Taken" \- and in a lot of ways, I understand; I'm an introvert, too... and
sometimes I'm not really up for conversation with my lunch. But, I find that
reading the internet on your phone (and by extension, using an e-reader) are a
lot more acceptable than those sorts of things used to be. With those
affordances, I think it's easier than it used to be to politely say "I'm not
really up for conversation today"

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baud147258
When such place is packed, I have no qualm to sit next to someone alone on a
table for four, asking beforehand. Or even the other way around: if I'm alone
on a table for four, it wouldn't bother me too much to share it.

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jlebrech
there should be an establishment that's open 24hrs for different purposes,
Cafe, sandwich shop, bar, club, hotel.

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wollw
> One McRefugee renting a subdivided flat in To Kwa Wan, Hung said, told
> volunteers that her landlord charged her HK$16 for a unit of electricity,
> compared to about HK$1.10 charged by the city’s two main power suppliers.

Sounds like they're trying to peg the HKD to the USD Silver Unit[1][2][3].

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1792#Authorizat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1792#Authorization_and_free_coinage)
[2][https://silverprice.org/silver-price-per-
ounce.html](https://silverprice.org/silver-price-per-ounce.html)
[3][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Silver_Eagle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Silver_Eagle)

edit: I can't help but notice that 2.5g is the weight in silver of the old
Liberty Disme that I pick up for about $1 (paper) when I feel like putting
some silver into the local economy (used as 10c). A 'spot' of silver perhaps.

~~~
pjc50
This is spectacularly off topic, but the HKD is actually pegged to the real US
dollar.

