Friday, June 29, 2012

Is it fair?

In my neighborhood there are three stalls selling economic rice. They are all selling around $4 each plate. One day, the stall that I've been buying for the past 4-5 yrs decided to change their price. They decided to import better rice and meat and fresher vegetables, with a catch of course. The catch being that they will reduce the quantity of the rice, the meat and the vegetables by about 1/6 of the original amount and it'll cost the same price. Despite being complained by consumers all over the neighborhood, the stall refused to budge with their plans. Their reason is that most consumers do not finish their plates and perhaps only 1% of the people buying their economic rice finish the entire plate. Since 99% of the people could not finish their plate, therefore they would not even notice if the amount of food on their plate is reduced by 1/6.


What's worse is that the surrounding stalls also followed. One of the stall haven't really raised its price yet so maybe I'll have to wait and see how it goes. Despite complaining to the authorities who governed hawker pricing, nothing is going to be changed. In fact, the authorities said that it's fair practice to reduce the amount of food but charge the same price since it's a universally accepted practice in other countries as well.


Seriously, what a bummer.

14 comments :

Anonymous said...

Follow shoe box apartment.

CreateWealth8888 said...

My rojak at HG up from $2 to $2.50

Sanye ◎ 三页 said...

Govment annouced big time they increased the salary of low wage workers. So hawkers will want an increase on their income and increase their price. Then transport companies increase their fair,.... and the cycle goes on. Everything goes up so the real income (buying power) does not.

As for the hawkers prices, as long as we Singaporeans depend on them to fill our stomach, there isn't much we can do.

Frustration.....

financialray said...

Remember we have to grow bigger than our problem?
Just pay 50c more to ask for more rice if you wish.
After buying from this stall so many years, you must show some appreciation.
Everybody has to cope with inflation. So personally, I feel that their strategy is a fair way of coping.

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

Come to Queenstown and support our senior hawkers here ;)

Economic rice 2 veggies and I meat = $2.70 only (special price!).

Noodles stalls selling $2.50 small and $3.00 big.

Hawkers here many as old as the original residents and the first generation HDB flats here.

Come try hawker foods with the 70s taste before they retire! 30 to 40 years of dedication, toil and sweat.

New BTOs flats arrive business only slightly better. Weekdays not crowded. Only weekends have to wait in queues for popular stalls.

Come, come!

Their hands are wrinkled. Hair grey or missing. Some hard of hearing. Their movements much slower.

Have a bit of patience. Don't rush.
Chat with them if you have the time.

Treat them like the ah kong or ah ma you grew up with.

One day before you realise it, they would fade away like the memories of our childhood.

Come, come!

Come to Queenstown!

la papillion said...

Hi folks,

Haha, it's interesting how everyone who commented here thinks that I'm really talking about the economic rice stalls. So let's see who cracks the puzzle.

Here's the clues:

1. There are 3 stalls
2. They are going to reduce the food not by 1/5 or 1/4 but specifically by 1/6.
3. A lot of people cannot eat up their quota of food, but only a small percentage can eat up the entire quota.

Anyone?

Anonymous said...

Telcos?

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

Ai yeah!

Head bang wall!

Good one LP :)

I read but I did not use imagination :(

(Lame excuse is at 11:19 pm, my pentium 4 chip not running at over-clocked speed.)

Now I see what you meant! I maciam eyes stuck stamp... LOL!

At least I got chance to lelong on behalf of our Queenstown hawkers.

Free come and support Queenstowners OK?

P.S. Lucky I laggard start with M1's 12G mobile plan from day 1 after my return. Never knew unlimited so feel no pain.

Anonymous said...

We all notice how many of these type of "Zai-Liao-Be" authorities (Power,Transport,Housing,InfoComm so on and so forth.) being enlisted around... not to the consumer's advantage--but always siting excuses like other countires are worse than us, or increase is still within international standard.

durio said...

our (in)famous S.M.S! LOLz
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/singtel-launches-4g-services-but-at-a-cost.html

Mad Stranger said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mad Stranger said...

It sounds like the dataplan offered by telcos. nicely presented.

But the rice and vege/meat is reduced to 1/6, not by 1/6.

la papillion said...

Hi folks,

Yup, talking about the telcos data plan here. It was quite irritating when I saw the authorities saying that it was fair for them to charge us like that, so that's the reason for blogging this post.

Sorry for the mix-up, haha!

Unknown said...

Hi,

This situation is also happening in Bedok hawket stalls. Sometimes I just felt like being ripped off. So nowadays, my wife and me had boycotted these stalls and cook our own meals. Economic and healthy.

Check out my blog on similar topic. SG Web Reviews (www.sgwebreviews.blogspot.com).

Regards,
www.sgwebreviews.blogspot.com