Provision shops, hawker food, the kampung spirit: Some Singaporeans online share grim outlook 10 to 20 years from now

SINGAPORE: Discussions about what could quietly disappear from what Singapore is today had Singaporeans online sharing their grim outlooks for the next 10 to 20 years, with some expressing fears about Singapore’s provision shops, hawker food and the kampung spirit disappearing altogether.

The conversation started when a netizen on r/askSingapore asked fellow Singaporeans what they think will disappear in the coming years and what has quietly disappeared over the last two decades.

He wrote: “A grim outlook but I think the kampung spirit will go. People don’t know their neighbours anymore nor do they care. Colours in general have disappeared. The buildings and paints and toys etc.”

Commenters also mentioned hawker food, neighbourhood provision shops and local snacks like the “big circular thin wafers that come in pastel colours”.

One commenter who mentioned hawker food explained: “Hawker centres are considered UNESCO tourist sites, so the SG government won’t be letting them go away anytime soon. But hawker food on the other hand… if the prices can’t remain lower than fast food and restaurants, there is indeed a possibility people just stop going to them, and they all run out of business.”

In December, Channel News Asia reported that nearly half of heartland residents they spoke to felt the kampung spirit was fading as international chains moved in and neighbourhood shops shifted towards trendier offerings to keep up with consumer preferences.

At the time, one netizen advised fellow Singaporeans to stop “pwn-ing” local businesses and support homegrown shops instead, as they cannot match the prices of “foreign businesses with deeper pockets”.

More recently, in May, Makansutra founder KF Seetoh called for Singapore’s hawker culture to be protected and preserved, describing it as “the heart of Singapore’s identity”.

Reacting to a video of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong with Lai Xing Prawn Noodle owner Roger Wong, whose mother started the business in 1975, Mr Seetoh said: “If we value this heritage, we must continue to support them, so that our hawker culture stays strong for generations to come.”

Provision shops, meanwhile, have also been closing amid increased competition, high rents and a lack of successors, according to industry observers, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Singapore University of Technology and Design Associate Professor Yeo Kang Shua said mama shops — a Tamil term for “uncle” traditionally associated with the Indian ethnicity of the shop owners who ran them — are important to sustaining a diverse retail ecosystem and preventing neighbourhoods from becoming standardised and dominated by larger operators.

“We should not only pay attention to mama shops when one is about to close. What is often lost is not just a business, but also the long-standing relationships between the owner and the neighbourhood,” he said.

Concerns over familiar parts of Singapore disappearing were also evident earlier this month, when industry players warned that the city-state’s ageing ice cream uncles could disappear within five to 10 years.

One Singaporean said it would be “sad to see another element of Singapore culture being relegated to nostalgia bait with no cultural relevance to newer generations.” /TISG

Read also: ‘Why do daily essentials and hawker food feel cheaper in Singapore than in Malaysia?’: Malaysian who spends more time in SG for work asks