‘Here’s how you can help rein in escalating rent and prices in SG’ — S’porean lays out a battle plan for fellow S’poreans to fight rising costs of living

SINGAPORE: Singapore, we need to talk. Hawkers are vanishing, kopitiam rents are climbing like HDB resale prices in a bull run, and Singaporeans are getting increasingly squeezed—not just on the MRT during peak hour, but in their wallets too.

And one Singaporean has just had enough of it. In a sharp, no-holds-barred post titled “How you can help rein in escalating rent and prices,” he laid out a battle plan to fight rising costs with the most powerful weapon we have: Our spending power!

“F&B shops are closing left, right, centre. Heritage hawker stalls cannot stand the increasing rent plus cost of living because kopitiams are being flipped like the Beo Crescent curry rice one. Rent is increasingly ridiculous. Everybody’s pocket-hurting,” he wrote on r/singapore.

How you can help rein in escalating rent and prices.
byu/Dry_Mee_Pok_Kaiju insingapore

Sound familiar? That’s because it’s happening all around us; the call to action is clear, and here’s his low-cost revolution, Singapore-style financial battle plan:

🍜 Step 1: Support real hawkers, not hipster hawkerpreneurs!

The Singaporean urges: “Eat hawker food in a hawker centre. Especially from the older hawkers. Or cook and eat in. It’s cheaper and healthier than those in food courts or kopitiams.”

He even added a tactical twist: “If you must buy from them, tabao. Because the owners mostly run the drinks stall, it is very profitable. Make these scalping kopitiam landlords suffer.”

Translation: Tapao, don’t dine in. Hit them where it hurts—by skipping the overpriced drink stalls owned by landlords charging sky-high rent.

🛒 Step 2: Shop online, shop overseas, or support HDB heartland stores!

Next move: “Buy online and overseas. I think a lot of people are doing it already. There is actually no motivation for the need to buy anything from shopping malls. Make the REITs suffer.”

You heard that right. Forget the air-conditioned malls where prices include a hefty rent markup. Instead, the Singaporean recommends going digital or keeping it local with your friendly neighbourhood mom-and-pop shop.

📈 Step 3: Know thy enemy (capitalist)!

Here comes the punchline that hit a nerve: “Rent is THE primary cause for the escalation of prices here. Inflation, high wages are partially an effect of that too.”

Even more provocatively, the Singaporean claims: “The [capitalist] does not want to confront it because they and their cronies are the primary beneficiary of it.”

While that last bit may raise eyebrows, it reflects a growing sentiment among everyday Singaporeans: That the rent game is rigged, and the only way to break the cycle is to spend wisely and consciously.

🧠 TL;DR for the busy Singaporean!

“Spend your money anywhere except in shopping malls and kopitiams.”

Because in this capitalistic playground we call home, if you want to stop the rent from going berserk, you’ve got to stop feeding the beast.

Whether it’s S$4 kopi from a food court, or S$24 nasi lemak from a ‘luxury hawker concept’ in a mall, it’s time to rethink who we support with every dollar.

So his message is: Support real hawkers, cook at home, shop smart—and then maybe we can all finally breathe easier and eat cheaper once again, at last. Yes? No?

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