‘We can forget about new local success stories,’ netizen says as a cafe closes after 5 years amid rental hikes, manpower challenges, and rising cost of goods

SINGAPORE: “We can forget about new local success stories,” one netizen said as another food and beverage (F&B) business closed after five years amid rising rents, manpower shortages, and rising costs of goods.

The comment came after Channel News Asia’s (CNA’s) report on Daphne Ling, a mother of five who has run an advertising agency with her husband for 12 years and recently shut down Main Street Commissary, the café they opened five years ago along Rowell Road.

The couple had turned the empty unit below their agency’s shophouse office into a curatorial art café, serving their favourite food and coffee from small-batch growers in Guatemala and Nicaragua, while collaborating with local artists to decorate the café’s walls with poetry, photography, tattoo designs, taxidermy, and keycaps.

However, despite their efforts, the café faced a second rent hike in five years that nearly doubled their costs, alongside rising prices of goods and manpower challenges that sometimes forced Ms Ling to work days without breaks. Although they knew that too many cafés close down each year, they felt they had to give their dream a try.

In the end, the risks of turning a profit “just seemed too bleak,” said Ms Ling, prompting them to close the café.

Last year, over 3,000 F&B outlets closed, with over 200 closures monthly, up from just 170 per month during the pandemic. By April this year, monthly closures had risen to 307.

Just last week, Makansutra founder KF Seetoh spoke out for hawkers and coffeeshop operators whose profit margins are “paper-thin” due to steep rental hikes, high gas prices, and the rising cost of living.

Many netizens praised Ms Ling, noting it was “crazy” how she managed five kids and a full-time advertising job and still had time for the café, although others were much more surprised by the “diabolical” rent hike the café faced in just five years.

“Double is crazy in five years. After they’ve sunk costs into renovations, furniture, machines, [and] building a customer base in the area, landlords know you’d have higher inertia and [be] less likely to leave. That’s when they hit you with the double rent,” one commenter said. “It’s so sad how landlords really just price out local businesses for higher profit,” another added.

Another netizen noted that the café might have survived if not for the steep rent hike.

Still, one remarked, “Despite it not working out, [I] have to respect them for trying.”

In a bid to curb rising rents in the heartlands, the Housing Development Board (HDB) may selectively acquire privately owned shop units and expand the supply of those it leases out. Currently, around 8,500 HDB shops are privately owned, with rentals reportedly doubling in just the past year.

Some netizens also urged consumers and residents in the city-state to do more to support local businesses, with others saying they buy from nearby stalls and avoid delivery apps so more money goes directly to shop owners instead of big corporations. /TISG

Read also: Singaporeans say ‘cooking at home is becoming expensive too’ as they cope with rising food and kopi prices