GEORGE TOWN: A restaurant owner's attempt to publicly shame a customer for not ordering drinks has backfired and attracted backlash online.
The owner of the restaurant, located on Carnavon Street here, had posted a photo of the customer, an elderly man, on Facebook with a caption that read: "If this man wants to be famous, let's help him."
The man apparently did not order any drink nor pay the RM1 fee imposed on those who do not do so.
Internet users did not take kindly to the owner's attempt to publicly humiliate the elderly man, which saw the Google review rating of the coffeeshop dropping to 1.3 stars from 4.2 stars.
The online outrage, however, did not seem to affect business as a check Tuesday (March 21) morning showed that it was packed with customers.
The owner Lim, 46, said it was untrue that he would be closing his business for good.
He said he had since deactivated his Facebook page after offering an apology to the man and the public in general.
He also said a fake account had uploaded a poll on Facebook, saying the coffeeshop would close if the poll garnered 10,000 likes.
Lim said there were no plans to close the business.
