A Taipei store owner who ran his business without staff and relied on the honesty of people to pay for the items they took closed the establishment after discovering he had been stolen from.
The owner of Tree Top Milk on Wuxing Street in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) on Thursday last week wrote on Facebook that he was closing the store.
The business operated on an honor system in which customers paid for the goods on their own, the proprietor said, adding that the store only opened about two months ago, selling frozen foods, confectionery and milk substitute products.
Nearby residents said that they were surprised and saddened by the news of the store’s closure given its short time in business.
The owner of a nearby store said she regularly saw customers at Tree Top Milk and heard about the theft, but did not think that the owner would close the store so soon.
“Sure enough this way of doing business means a loss as soon as the doors are open,” a resident said.
One student said the owner made a mistake by putting too much faith in the goodwill of Taiwanese.
The student said the public’s level of morality is not so high, adding that the store’s owner should find a more suitable way to do business and try again.
Netizens responded to the theft by criticizing the perpetrators, saying that the behavior demonstrated “a psychological illness and a serious deviation from integrity.”
Others took the opportunity to express support for the store owner.
“Is your rest over? Come back soon,” one netizen wrote.
“Hang in there. Although there are some dishonest people, there are many more who are honest and who support you,” another wrote.
From a legal perspective, the means of transaction at Tree Top Milk was similar to that of a vending machine, National Taiwan Normal University secretary-general Lin An-pang (林安邦) said.
If a customer takes something without paying, then they have failed to fulfill the “contractual obligations” of the transaction, Lin said, adding that the proprietor could sue for compensation as well as interest.
Lin praised the store owner for trusting people, adding that he hopes this method of doing business will cultivate a sense of responsibility among the public.
“It is really a shame that the dishonesty of only a small number of people caused a store to incur losses and stop doing business,” Lin said.
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