A senior citizen noted with alarm that the prices of staples such as bread and toilet paper have increased recently.
“How can I manage if it goes on like this? I’m almost 70 living off my savings. During my time a $1000.00 monthly salary makes it to middle class,” wrote Mr Hoong Hoong on the COMPLAINT Singapore Facebook page on Tuesday (Sept 4).
He called inflation “daylight robbery.”
Mr Hoong wrote that the price of Super Value enriched white bread used to be $1.30.
Now, it has “quietly increased” to $1.60, he noted, having written that they eat this brand of bread daily.
It had “super value for a long time for the lower income group of the population,” he noted.
As for toilet paper, he wrote that PurSoft toilet rolls used to come in packages of 10, now “changed to a new packaging with new colours and new design of 8 rolls and once again quietly.”
This type of toilet paper is a necessity for many who have a piles problem. Piles, or haemorrhoids) are lumps inside and around the anus. In some countries, around half of adults aged 50 and older have this medical condition.
Netizens showed sympathy toward Mr Hoong in the comments, with one pointing out that prices are set to get even higher once the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike sets in starting from Jan 1, 2023.
The GST is set to rise from 7 per cent to 8 per cent by next year, and to further increase to 9 per cent in 2024.
“Savings not sustainable for the lower/middle population,” another netizen commented.
One netizen praised how the senior citizen has “great fb skills to make a good valid post.”
/TISG