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Commentary: Singaporeans’ reluctance to pay more for hawker food is endangering the trade

SGMCF328

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Scion

Scion

Turbocharged

it started all so well at the beginning....

affordable public housing for the people
affordable daily meals for the people

alas, both have become haywire now

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inlinesix

inlinesix

Hypersonic
On 1/10/2025 at 10:18 AM, Scion said:

it started all so well at the beginning....

affordable public housing for the people
affordable daily meals for the people

alas, both have become haywire now

It can still be affordable if you are willing to pay more GST lo.

Affordable daily meal is a myth

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Beregond

Beregond

Supersonic

To be fair  . The day we become the most expensive city in the world. Cheap and good food. Or cheap and good hawker food is going to die out.

Cheap and good dun go hand in hand with the most expensive city in the world.

Long working hours. No leave or mc. L  Poor working condition.  Yet low income. How to fix that into the most expensive city in the world?

Once the current old generation of hawker that are still selling at low price retire.

That's it. We will still have hawker food. But it's no longer the current price. 

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inlinesix

inlinesix

Hypersonic
On 1/10/2025 at 11:35 AM, Beregond said:

To be fair  . The day we become the most expensive city in the world. Cheap and good food. Or cheap and good hawker food is going to die out.

Cheap and good dun go hand in hand with the most expensive city in the world.

Long working hours. No leave or mc. L  Poor working condition.  Yet low income. How to fix that into the most expensive city in the world?

Once the current old generation of hawker that are still selling at low price retire.

That's it. We will still have hawker food. But it's no longer the current price. 

We can't expect Hawker to earn $1k - $2k net when fresh grad is earning $5k.

Dying hawker culture is a victim of our success (economically)

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Volvobrick

Volvobrick

Supersonic
On 1/10/2025 at 11:57 AM, inlinesix said:

We can't expect Hawker to earn $1k - $2k net when fresh grad is earning $5k.

Dying hawker culture is a victim of our success (economically)

Well said. Let them earn more. 

The rest if cannot afford then do like the ang moh - pack dinner leftover (usually in the form of sandwich) and bring to office. And drink free kopi at the pantry!

 

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Stratovarius

Stratovarius

Turbocharged
On 1/10/2025 at 11:57 AM, inlinesix said:

We can't expect Hawker to earn $1k - $2k net when fresh grad is earning $5k.

Dying hawker culture is a victim of our success (economically)

Lust time in the 90s, my downstairs the uncle sell rojak wear gold rollie and drives bently. Char kway tiao uncles also got gold rollie and drives s class. But lives were great back then.

Of coz we will want them to have good earnings, but when they are selling close to restaurant price, where will consumers go? Many of us tot the rising cost is due to the greedy landlords, but the son of punggol say is not wor. 

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Stratovarius

Stratovarius

Turbocharged
On 1/10/2025 at 4:30 PM, mersaylee said:

Referring to the wallet...? Mine has been losing weight since post covid...😅

"The result: he lost 58.5lbs (26.5kg) while his cholesterol, blood sugar and heart attack risk numbers improved."

I'm having prosperity burger with free pineapple pie every meal till cny eve liao.

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mersaylee

mersaylee

Hypersonic
On 1/10/2025 at 4:39 PM, Stratovarius said:

"The result: he lost 58.5lbs (26.5kg) while his cholesterol, blood sugar and heart attack risk numbers improved."

I'm having prosperity burger with free pineapple pie every meal till cny eve liao.

I've been prosperous since the launch this year...today's the lust day for offer...😂

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Unfazed

Unfazed

6th Gear

I want to laugh die me when G kept putting the hawker line in the limelight this that lah. Say what simi UNESCO lah, what hawker school lah, crap lah blah blah blah...

Hello, when many felt or treat it as sunset trade, it's too late already, ok? Set up all those only these recent years got use meh.

When the problem was being highlighted were all set on deaf ears!

Hawkers themselves cited rent as a high cost and what happened? Were their feedback heard. How many years people like KF Seetoh been relentlessly reviving our hawker culture? 

The management of these hawkers were made more and more complicated. 3rd party operators lah. Pay wash plate pay collect plates blah blah blah how much lah. In the end benefited who? It's the middleman who drove flashy cars but these hawkers slogged to pay all these additional unnecessary costs. 

What minimum wage lah say will increase what meagre amount over how many years lah. Goodness sake. Want to increase just increase fast fast lah. How much are these workers paid anyway?! Cannot afford their increase the following month onwards meh? The increase for higher-ups per month is already easily more than what these meagre blue collared guys are getting. We make it sound like we did so much for them! And the increase takes place faster than these guys with meagre income!

Hawkers used to be able to support their family but now, want a stupid van being a hawker gotto slog like hell. Already long hours and we expect them to put in even longer hours. Of course, not many will take it up.

Coupled with perception that it's a dirty low job which I personally don't think so. How many is willing to go that extra mile to pursue this passion when they have to grapple with unnecessary high cost justified by many unimportant decision makers.

We are just top heavy where this load is being supported by commoners trying to carve out a balance for themselves. 

No wonder hawker trade is dying and it should. We should even boycott and just eat subs thou one sees boredom in eating that. 

Our food haven is just being taken for granted. The increase is from top down not ground up. Because we give the impression that no matter how expensive, one needs to turn to hawker food and there's no other way. 

So much so for managing inflation ya!

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Mkl22

Mkl22

Supersonic
On 1/10/2025 at 5:24 PM, Unfazed said:

I want to laugh die me when G kept putting the hawker line in the limelight this that lah. Say what simi UNESCO lah, what hawker school lah, crap lah blah blah blah...

Hello, when many felt or treat it as sunset trade, it's too late already, ok? Set up all those only these recent years got use meh.

When the problem was being highlighted were all set on deaf ears!

Hawkers themselves cited rent as a high cost and what happened? Were their feedback heard. How many years people like KF Seetoh been relentlessly reviving our hawker culture? 

The management of these hawkers were made more and more complicated. 3rd party operators lah. Pay wash plate pay collect plates blah blah blah how much lah. In the end benefited who? It's the middleman who drove flashy cars but these hawkers slogged to pay all these additional unnecessary costs. 

What minimum wage lah say will increase what meagre amount over how many years lah. Goodness sake. Want to increase just increase fast fast lah. How much are these workers paid anyway?! Cannot afford their increase the following month onwards meh? The increase for higher-ups per month is already easily more than what these meagre blue collared guys are getting. We make it sound like we did so much for them! And the increase takes place faster than these guys with meagre income!

Hawkers used to be able to support their family but now, want a stupid van being a hawker gotto slog like hell. Already long hours and we expect them to put in even longer hours. Of course, not many will take it up.

Coupled with perception that it's a dirty low job which I personally don't think so. How many is willing to go that extra mile to pursue this passion when they have to grapple with unnecessary high cost justified by many unimportant decision makers.

We are just top heavy where this load is being supported by commoners trying to carve out a balance for themselves. 

No wonder hawker trade is dying and it should. We should even boycott and just eat subs thou one sees boredom in eating that. 

Our food haven is just being taken for granted. The increase is from top down not ground up. Because we give the impression that no matter how expensive, one needs to turn to hawker food and there's no other way. 

So much so for managing inflation ya!

its SAF style... which is also top heavy....

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Unfazed

Unfazed

6th Gear
On 1/10/2025 at 3:21 PM, Stratovarius said:

Lust time in the 90s, my downstairs the uncle sell rojak wear gold rollie and drives bently. Char kway tiao uncles also got gold rollie and drives s class. But lives were great back then.

Of coz we will want them to have good earnings, but when they are selling close to restaurant price, where will consumers go? Many of us tot the rising cost is due to the greedy landlords, but the son of punggol say is not wor. 

When I was a kid, sell pork also drive Merc but fortunes were earned through hard work and some investment but not under knife sharpening prices. Those were the days where there were balances. Doesn't matter what trade one was in. But now, revenue haven't reap, higher-ups already want to start ka-ching ka-ching to the banks.

I stole slogan again. Good luck stinkapore ya. 

One more to add. And YouTubers foreigners are not helping when they kept singing praises of us. When so many people bluff one saying one is handsome continuously, one will really believe so. 😉

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Unfazed

Unfazed

6th Gear
On 1/10/2025 at 11:35 AM, Beregond said:

To be fair  . The day we become the most expensive city in the world. Cheap and good food. Or cheap and good hawker food is going to die out.

Cheap and good dun go hand in hand with the most expensive city in the world.

Long working hours. No leave or mc. L  Poor working condition.  Yet low income. How to fix that into the most expensive city in the world?

Once the current old generation of hawker that are still selling at low price retire.

That's it. We will still have hawker food. But it's no longer the current price. 

No worries. We are a great great place still, in the eyes of foreigners who doesn't have a price to pay to be here, yet sang praises citing people should be grateful hor. 😉

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