Counting sticks: How technology helped this satay hawker reinvent tradition
Writing down orders, counting sticks, and collecting cash - these have long been Lee Bee Hock's to-do list as a hawker.
Starting off selling satay along a five-foot-way, Lee recalls that era when everything was done by hand. At the time, being a hawker required much coordination and mental calculations - she was the chef, accountant and store manager all rolled into one.
«I do almost everything here,» says Lee, pointing to her son as the only other person who helps her out at her stall from time to time.
While she used to have to manually count orders, satay sticks and cash to calculate her earnings, advances in technology have transformed the way her stall operates.
Tradition and technology meet
As a one-man operation, Lee recounts how, in the past, she had to jot down orders and payments in a book and store her cash in drawers.
These days, she has a cash register with a point-of-sale (POS) system that helps her consolidate multiple orders, and a buzzer system to alert customers to collect their orders. With prices already set inside the system, she can key in orders efficiently at just the touch of a button.
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