Hester Chew, the CEO of McThai, the operator of the McDonald's fast food chain in Thailand, said that customer feedback gathered via social media, emails and surveys, indicated people are annoyed at the lack of seating during lunch and dinner hours.
On Monday, the company announced a new policy in which customers are asked not to loiter inside the restaurant for more than one hour at a time during peak hours.
The new rule is targeting people who use the restaurants as a meeting place, or for tutoring students. It also requests customers to purchase food while using the restaurant seating, and states that there is to be no waiting without buying anything. Unattended belongings will be removed from the vacant tables, according to the company's notice to customers.
Customers are also being urged not to leave items such as laptop computers or cell phones plugged into the electrical outlets for more than 30 minutes at a time. For safety reasons, any use of multi outlet extensions will be prohibited inside the restaurants. International coffee chain Starbucks earlier initiated a policy discouraging tutors from using its outlets as places of work.
The restrictions have received mixed reactions from netizens. Many support the new policy, calling it a reinforcement of a common courtesy. However, some also see it as McDonald's and Starbucks' irresponsible way of dealing with the issue.
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