By Terry Xu –

Following the story of Hai Bin Bishan Prawning being compelled to close due to the high rent imposed by its landlord, Nature Park, , TOC paid a visit to the shop to take a look on its last day of operation.

The shop offered free prawn fishing sessions on its last day of operation to thank all their loyal patrons for their support these last 6 years of its operation.

Customers queued for coupons which entitled them to a free rod for a three hour session of fishing. The sessions started from early morning and continued till midnight. Many who turned up were long time patrons of the shop.

Mr Wang Huiqing, the person in charge at the Bishan branch, said that the landlord gave an offer of $110,000 to renew the rental of the shop inclusive of the coffeeshop just beside it. Previously, the rental of the whole site which includes the prawning pond and the coffeeshop, was charged a monthly rental of $43,000.

The shop operators were only informed on 19th August and told to pack up by end of August if they did not agree to the new terms.

Mr Wang said the landlord denied responsibility for the late notice, claiming that the notice of the rise in rental had already been conveyed to the owner of the coffeeshop in July.

Although the pricing might have been offered at market price and might also be viable if they took over the operations of the coffee shop and the food stalls, the management felt that it would be wrong to accept the offer since they had been renting from the coffee shop to begin with and it would have meant undercutting another just to maintain their operations.

Mr Wang said that in the subsequent discussion, the initial offer was dropped and another offer was made by the landlord – which is to take 40 per cent of the total income as payment for the rental. Hai Bin management rejected the offer as they did not find it economically feasible.

The additional 15 days which the shop requested for were approved by the landlord but they were still asked to pay about $34,700 for the rentals, a drastic increase compared to the previous arrangement of $26,000.

Word has it that the landlord has plans to open its own prawn fishing business but it remains to be confirmed.

All of the patrons whom we spoke to expressed their disappointment that the shop will be closing. But their views are divided on whether or not they would support a new prawn fishing shop by another management.

Some have expressed that they will go to the other branches of Hai Bin while some say they would wait and see if the pricing for the new shop will be affordable.

When asked about what would happen to the staff of the Bishan branch, Mr Wang said that some will be deployed to the Punggol and Jurong branches.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

HDB’s no-cat rule is ‘outdated’ and reasoning is ‘inconsistent’, says NCMP Daniel Goh

In Parliament on Monday (2 March), Non-Constituency MP Daniel Goh highlighted his…

企业跃跃欲试 金管局接21份数码银行执照申请

新加坡金融管理局指出,共接获21份数码银行执照申请,其中有七方竞标全面数码银行执照,14方则申请批发数码银行执照。 新加坡金融管理局近日发表声明,数码银行执照吸引了电子商务公司、科技和电信公司、金融科技公司和金融机构的强烈兴趣,多数竞争者都组成财团竞标。 当局也表示,将在6月宣布申请获批准名单,并预计将在2021年开始营业。 金管局于去年8月宣布开放纯数码银行执照申请,预计将发放最多五张执照。其中包括两张全面数码银行执照和三张批发数码银行执照。 尽管当局并没有透露申请者身份,但很多公司都对此项目表示感兴趣,如召车服务公司Grab和通讯业巨头新电信,两者也率先提出合组财团申请全面数码银行执照。 随后,电竞设备厂商雷蛇(Razor)与中国支付巨头蚂蚁金服于本周分别宣布,将加入战局。 据《联合早报》报导,新能源集团(SP Group)今早也宣布加入数码银行执照竞争。它已与香港尚乘集团(AMTD)、小米集团旗下的小米金融,以及P2P借贷平台Funding Societies共同申请批发数码银行执照。

绿色和平组织轰印尼政府执法不力 导致林火问题延续

印尼森林山火危机仍在持续,甚至严重影响当地生态与各国,印尼绿色和平组织(Greenpeace Indonesia)抨击,尽管事态严重,但自2015年至2018年,10家涉及焚烧大片森林的油棕公司并未受到行政或民事制裁。 此外,印尼政府也不曾因森林山火而吊销任何公司的油棕种植许可证。 “自2015年起,印尼政府本就应将遏制森林火灾再度发生作为首要工作,但实际上的结果显示,他们在打击这些企业上,只有空泛的承诺与出尔反尔的执法行动,所以吁请总统佐科威,马上撤销所有制造火灾的公司的许可证”,印度尼西亚绿色和平组织森林倡议人员陶菲克(Kiki Taufik)说。 绿色和平组织根据官方记录进行分析,发现在2015至2018年期间,逾340万公顷的土地被烧毁。 政府声称要应对火灾的同时还要兼顾执法,实属困难,但显然分析结果明显与政府所说有所差距。目前烟霾已经在过去两周内影响了邻国。 “为何造成严重火灾的10家企业,没有一家受到总统佐科威的严惩?为什么要豁免这些造成严重灾害的公司?很不幸的是,是因为政府并不重视执法,这也是为什么火灾会再度燃烧起来”, 陶菲克表示。 另外,绿色和平组织早前也揭露,因非法采伐与造成森林火灾的公司,尽管被政府向民事法庭起诉后,却没有一家偿还过罚款,截至今日,其欠款总额已高达12亿美元。 印尼森林山火不仅仅是普通火灾,更是对无论是生态、健康还是经济都有着重大影响。世界银行曾估算,2015年的森林山火已造成印尼损失160亿美元,其中来自各方面如林业、农业、旅游业以及其他行业的亏损。另外,烟霾导致数十万人患上呼吸道与其他疾病,据悉,可能带来逾10万人过早死亡。 在生态方面,因烟霾制造了每日1130万吨碳排放量到大气层中,其数字甚过整个欧洲联盟的碳排放量。…

New rules for big dorms but MPs concerned about smaller ones

While the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) was focused on legislations to regulate…