Bastards!
You want to open a bar? So you find suitable premises. Pay an intolerably high rental to a rapacious landlord. Spend a couple of million fitting it out. Navigate your way through a meandering maze of archaic legislation which is over seen by 400 different departments, all of whom send a different case officer for every inspection. But eventually, after complying with some pretty dumb criteria that defies all logic they finally deem you worthy of a Liquor Licence… provisionally of course. But you’ve got it, the Holy Grail to profitability. Now there’s a chance you might get a return on your investment, although up to 70% of new ventures don’t… ever. But you’re on your way to success.
And then bastards! Seven Eleven scum open up next door. They don’t need a liquor licence. The don’t need fire escapes or toilets, or any of the other mundane criteria required by the Liquor Licencing fuckwits. They’re allowed to sell alcohol which is fair enough, IF it’s for taking away. But they break the law with impunity! They allow people to drink on the premises, they open the bottles for you, they’ll even supply you a paper cup if you fancy sharing a bottle of wine, they sell to kids and drunks… all of which are against the law… but no authority will do a thing about it. Meanwhile you just kissed goodbye to your investment thanks to the motely crew hanging around your venue, scaring custom away, or worse, buying from Seven Eleven and sneaking in unnoticed. But hey, it’s Hong Kong and someone will be profiting by looking the other way.
As I said! Bastards