Hawkers should not have to charge rock-bottom prices all the time

Prices are rising across the board, but hawkers still offer some of the best value-for-money meals out there.

- Karen Tee

The Great Budget Meal Hunt in Singapore is well under way.

Launched officially on Jan 16, the initiative encourages people to crowdsource for hawker meals that cost $3.50 or less, with their recommendations listed on the Budget MealGoWhere website.

This is without doubt a well-meaning initiative, and timely too, with the rising cost of living affecting many. But the move has also raised more than a few eyebrows. After all, with rapidly rising food prices and the hike in the goods and services tax from January, it seems unfair to expect hawkers to continue charging rock-bottom prices.

As a netizen on Facebook noted in response to the Great Budget Meal Hunt news: "Utilities like water, gas, and electricity charges are going up as well as the cost of ingredients, but we expect our hawkers to bite the bullet to sell cooked food cheaply to us at $3.50 or less?"

Indeed, as anyone who has gone grocery shopping will attest, it is a tall order to cook at home a reasonably nutritious meal at such a low cost.

So instead of this race to the bottom by singling out the hawkers offering the cheapest food, perhaps it might be time to acknowledge that many of them have been undercharging customers for way too long.

LIKE IT OR NOT, HAWKER PRICES ARE GOING UP 

Realistically, there is no escaping the inevitable increase in cooked food prices. It used to be common to find hawkers charging $3 to $4 for a plate of food, but over the past two years prices are estimated to have risen over 12 per cent, according to a Bloomberg report in September 2023.

During a recent lunch break at the Bukit Merah Central Food Centre, I noticed that many hawker stalls had stickers on their signboards indicating that prices had gone up, with a plate of cooked food now ranging from about $4.50 to $6.