SINGAPORE — After a customer insulted an online citizen’s aunt who’s a Cai Png stall assistant at a hawker centre for raising prices by 50 cents, he underlined in a post on r/singapore that higher prices are a necessity for hawkers.
“They don’t suka-suka raise it,” he added, meaning that they don’t charge higher now just because they simply like it or enjoy doing so.
Although he knows it’s an unpopular opinion that could get “downvoted to hell,” u/apeksiao wrote in a Feb 13 (Monday) post that “the profit margin for running a food stall is already incredibly low as it is. My aunt once was able to earn $2.5k, now even trying to earn $1.5k is difficult.
When the price of rental has shot through the roof in recent years, and when the price of every single expense also has increased (ingredients, utilities, general cost of living), these food stalls have no choice but to increase their prices to compensate.”
He lamented over a lack of understanding by many who complain of higher prices or smaller portion sizes, feeling like this it’s mostly directed toward hawkers and not, say, fast-food vendors.
“I don’t see much grumbling directed towards $5-$7 Bubble Tea or McDonald Meals that are reaching the $10 range now,” he wrote, adding, “Believe me, almost no hawker enjoys raise their prices for the fun of it. No hawker enjoys having to cut corners with their food portions.”
He ended his post by emphasizing the small earnings and profits, plus the long hours of work, that hawkers experience, writing that he hopes “more people can emphatise with the plight of most hawkers today instead of complaining.”
Several commenters on his post appeared to blame landlords.
One wrote, “I think the question that we should ask ourselves is, should we nationalise our hawkers back to NEA, to ensure that we always have cheap food? Or should we fatten the pockets of those greedy landowners who showed zero care for Singaporeans?”
“Blame the landlords for increasing rentals. People can pay a few dollars for grab delivery but unable to fork out an additional 50 cents for a meal which hawker storeowners have no choice due to landlords doubling their rental???,” chimed in another.
“In the end, is the landlords and inflation we blame. I foresee our hawker culture getting priced out many years later if no protectionist actions are taken,” one opined.
A woman whose mother also owns a food stall agreed with the post author.
Another weighed in, “I don’t mind them raising prices in this economy so long as they dont touch the portions… Get headache when they raise prices and give smaller portions.”
Makansutra founder KF Seetoh has weighed in on the same issue.
“Hawker food business in Sg is not sustainable, don’t kid yurself,” the food guru, a longtime proponent of the hawker trade, wrote last year. /TISG