No packaging, so take your shoes off.

On a short car ride from my home in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia, I came across a small biscuit shop, selling homemade biscuits.

The odd thing that caught my eye was that all the customers took their shoes off upon entering the shop.

Taking ones shoes off is not an unusual custom in many countries, in China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Turkey etc, it is common prior to entering a home to take your shoes off. Some people offer slippers for their guests to wear.

Temples, Hindu and Buddhist, and mosques, all require that footwear be removed. But a shop?

On removing my shoes and entering the shop, it was as if I had traveled back in time, a time when I was in Chasetown, my parents hometown in he UK, as a small boy.

Rows and rows of glass jars, each containing a different variety of biscuits of shape, colour and taste, all neatly arranged and stacked inside the jar. No self service here.

A polite notice had been placed throughout the shop in Chinese and English, saying “NO TASTE”. 


                                        
                                                                            

There was not a piece of packaging to be seen anywhere. No expensive artwork, no description of what the biscuit was, no what ingredients had been used to make them.