Bai Nian Food Court lost S$250,000 in 7 months, but owners refuse to give up

SINGAPORE: By any measure, a quarter of a million dollars is a substantial amount of money, and anyone would think that a loss of this size may cause someone to throw in the towel.

Apparently, this is not true for the owners of Bai Nian Food Court at Chai Chee, an eight-stall indoor dining venue at ESR BizPark @ Chai Chee in Bedok.

In late August, Tommy Pang, 29, who now runs the food court along with his sister as a challenge from their parents, took to social media to document their journey. 

The family is behind the famous local hawker brand Bai Nian Niang Dou Fu.

He admitted in an Aug 25 Instagram post that Bai Nian Food Court has lost around S$250,000 just in the past seven months, and asked: “Does it even make sense to keep on fighting?”

Though they are not ready to give up quite yet and are coming up with new ideas, such as free drinks for the month of September, he acknowledged that he does not know how to keep on operating the food court.

The main problem is low footfall, especially during weekdays. After people had to shift to remote work during the pandemic, the number of diners never quite recovered even after things went back to normal.

At lunchtime, the food court is only around 10% to 20% occupied, AsiaOne quoted Mr Pang as saying, and for dinner, there are even fewer people.

As a result, the food court’s tenants have left even before their leases were up, preferring to forfeit deposits to a continuous bleed in finances.

This has left Bai Nian Food Court in a lurch.

According to the Instagram post, some of the stalls have been left empty for months, and some of the ventures have not proven to be profitable, despite the investment of time, money, and effort that was put in.

“Is ‘having hope’ just another form of self-deception?” the post’s caption reads, adding, “If we only looked at the numbers, the most rational choice would probably have been to give up long ago.  But we still hold onto a sliver of belief,  a belief that this place has a chance to improve.”

In the meantime, in an effort to drum up business by adding value to their customers, the food court is giving away free hot drinks for people who order a main dish from their brands Bai Nian, Shi Nian, Hae! Mee, Bao Zai Wang, The Soup Bowl, and Lao Ban Niang. Diners may choose between hot kopi, Kopi O, Kopi C, tea, Tea O, Tea C, YuanYang, and YenYang C. If they want them iced, they simply need to add S$0.50. The offer runs through Sept 30. /TISG

Read also: ‘To prevent the overconsumption of resources’: Stallholder at Lucky Plaza food court defends S$0.20 charge for extra bowl after diner complains