• About Us
    • Fact Checking Policy
    • Ownership & funding information
    • Volunteer
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
    • Submissions Policy
  • Contact Us
The Online Citizen Asia
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
The Online Citizen Asia
No Result
View All Result

How on earth can a plate of Nasi lemak be priced at $20.40?

by Terry Xu
11/02/2016
in Community
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0

Photo of the $20.40 nasi lemak posted by Adeline Sze

A ridiculously priced “mixed rice” goes somewhat viral on social media and gets reported on social-political websites.
Adeline Sze was charged $20.40 for a plate of what seems to be “economical mixed rice” at the Food Republic, Vivocity on 8 February, the first day of Lunar New Year. Her friend, Patrick Tan felt that it was unfair for her and decided to share the story on his Facebook account with permission.
He wrote on his Facebook post along with the photo of Adeline’s meal, “I know it’s festive season and there will be an increase in the Prices for food. Also lazy to go find a Coffeeshop thats still open. That’s why I’m having maggi mee now at home. This afternoon I had my lunch in cck and they increased by $1. My Friend ordered this rice at Vivo city. 1 chicken wing. 1 spring roll. 1 egg and 2 types of veges. Guess how much? It’s $20.40.”
(Just as a prior clarification. If you look closely at the photo, its 6 dishes; 1 chicken wing, 1 wuxiang, 1 meat of sorts, 1 steamed egg and 2 type of vegetable.)
Netizens have been astonished on how a plate of mixed rice could have cost so much, saying that the stall should be named and shamed for its audacity to charge its customers as such.
What stall is it actually to have charged its customers at such a high price for such plain looking dishes?
In reality, it is not an economical rice stall nor the Nasi Padang at the foodcourt. The actual stall in question is the Chong Pang Nasi Lemak stall.

chongpang
Chong Pang Nasi Lemak at the Food Republic in Vivocity
But how was the dish priced at $20.40? Did the cashier haphazardly calculated the price of the dishes and gave a rounded up figure of the actual cost?
So happened that this writer passed by the foodcourt and, therefore, decided to buy a closely similar dish to test if the price was indeed as such. One chicken wing, two vegetables, and steamed egg.
samedish_1300
Terry’s $13.00 lunch
When the cashier tabulated the four dishes that was ordered, the final price came up to $13.00.
Wondering how the dish could have cost $20.40, this writer asked about if anyone had ordered a meal costing over 20 dollars. The female staff who was handling the food said in Chinese, “Have, if you order six dishes and plus the 20 percent Chinese New Year surcharge, of course, it will be 20 dollars.”  Interestingly, the lady seemed to be referring to the above-mentioned incident as she recalls that the six dishes nasi lemak rice is meant for a two person portion.
The spring roll, “wu xiang” in the photo by Adeline was said to cost 3 dollars. So looking back at what was ordered for the writer’s meal, the base cost would have been 19 dollars if added with two meat dishes of 3 dollars. If we were to work the sum back for the $20.40 meal, taking away the 20% surcharge, the actual value of the dish would be $17.00. So to think about it, the two meat dishes were given a discount of $1 each. (same as what was offered to the writer for an additional piece of meat.)
Just google “Chong Pang Food Republic Vivocity”, and you will realise that this stall is no stranger to controversy on its pricing. Links to forum threads and reports on STOMP, go all the way back to 2008, complaining about the overly priced nasi lemak rice.
howmuch
Complaint about the Chong Pang Nasi Lemak, Food [email protected] in 2008
But do customers really know how much would they be charged for the dish?
Well, there is a huge signboard and sideboard menu that mentions the price. $1.50 to $4.50 for chicken, $2.50 to $5.00 for seafood, etc. But frankly, who would assume that “mixed rice” cost so much?
menu
When asked which chicken dish(es) cost $1.50, the staff sheepishly shared that the board is outdated, and the price have been revised upwards a while back. Only the egg, hotdog, and otah remained the same.
This writer would advise diners to simply just disregard the price range and just take the highest figure as the cost of the item or just to avoid this tourist trap all together. After all, this foodcourt is situated just right beside the entrance of the monorail leading into Sentosa, the biggest tourist trap in Singapore.
Going further on the justification of cost, TOC spoke to a professional F&B consultant about the operating cost that food stalls such as Chong Pang Nasi Lemak have to pay to the food court.
While uncertain about the exact rental of the stalls in Food Republic, he says that such shops typically command a base rental of $9,000 with a sales target of $40,000. Any sales above $40,000 subject to a commission of 23-26%.
The cleaning fees will cost about to $2,500 and may go up accordingly with sales. Eg. The first $10,000 beyond the sales target of $40,000 will have an additional charge of $200 and etc. Along with a management fee $2,000.
He also noted that the stall owners are required to pay a “renovation fee” from $40,000-$100,000. Prime location like ION, Wisma, Vivocity would be on the high end which are normally paid off via an installment payment of 1-2years installment from their sales.
So effectively even before hitting $40,000 in sales, stall owners would have paid nearly $15,000 on fees to main operator alone.
Back to the issue of the overly priced nasi lemak. If the stall is still surviving after so many years despite the amount of complaints it receives online and the high operating expenses, it must be doing something right somehow. Therefore, as much as people can cry for the boycott of the stall,  the age old saying stand true, “willing buyer, willing seller.”

For just US$7.50 a month, sign up as a subscriber on The Online Citizen Asia (and enjoy ads-free experience on our site) to support our mission to transform TOC into an alternative mainstream press.

Related Posts

Thai rescuers dig to free baby trapped down well
AFP

Thai rescuers dig to free baby trapped down well

07/02/2023
Desmond Lee says 70% of BTO flats affordable for median household with income of S$8,400 but what about the 10th to 40th percentile?
Housing

Desmond Lee says 70% of BTO flats affordable for median household with income of S$8,400 but what about the 10th to 40th percentile?

07/02/2023
Returning Officer to issue corrective directions, overseas Singaporeans allowed to vote by post, among changes to laws tabled to Parliament
Singapore

Returning Officer to issue corrective directions, overseas Singaporeans allowed to vote by post, among changes to laws tabled to Parliament

07/02/2023
Can Malaysia review its current practices on foreign worker management?
Asia

Can Malaysia review its current practices on foreign worker management?

07/02/2023
Forum Asia calls for India to revoke arbitrary ban on BBC documentary
Civil Society

Forum Asia calls for India to revoke arbitrary ban on BBC documentary

07/02/2023
AFP

Google to release ChatGPT rival named Bard

07/02/2023
Subscribe
Connect withD
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
Connect withD
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest posts

Thai rescuers dig to free baby trapped down well

Thai rescuers dig to free baby trapped down well

07/02/2023
Desmond Lee says 70% of BTO flats affordable for median household with income of S$8,400 but what about the 10th to 40th percentile?

Desmond Lee says 70% of BTO flats affordable for median household with income of S$8,400 but what about the 10th to 40th percentile?

07/02/2023
Returning Officer to issue corrective directions, overseas Singaporeans allowed to vote by post, among changes to laws tabled to Parliament

Returning Officer to issue corrective directions, overseas Singaporeans allowed to vote by post, among changes to laws tabled to Parliament

07/02/2023
Can Malaysia review its current practices on foreign worker management?

Can Malaysia review its current practices on foreign worker management?

07/02/2023
Forum Asia calls for India to revoke arbitrary ban on BBC documentary

Forum Asia calls for India to revoke arbitrary ban on BBC documentary

07/02/2023

Google to release ChatGPT rival named Bard

07/02/2023
Earthquake kills more than 3,800 in Turkey, Syria

Earthquake kills more than 3,800 in Turkey, Syria

07/02/2023
Leong Mun Wai calls for a reset of housing policies to deliver affordable and accessible HDB flats and protect retirement adequacy

Leong Mun Wai calls for a reset of housing policies to deliver affordable and accessible HDB flats and protect retirement adequacy

07/02/2023

Trending posts

Cognizant India transfers staff to work in Singapore as recently as this year

Local IT grads can’t find jobs while engineers constantly transferred from India to work in SG under CECA

by Correspondent
05/02/2023
104

...

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

by Augustine Low
01/02/2023
47

...

Adani’s brother runs SG company and registers as director with local ID

Adani’s brother runs SG company and registers as director with local ID

by Correspondent
03/02/2023
26

...

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

by Yee Loon
30/01/2023
25

...

No response from Josephine Teo on whether Mediacorp has been instructed to stop coverage of SMT circulation scandal

No response from Josephine Teo over alleged blackout of coverage by Mediacorp over SMT circulation scandal

by Terry Xu
06/02/2023
11

...

Singapore Law Watch removes commentary on CPIB’s decision to not prosecute former Keppel executives

Singapore Law Watch removes commentary on CPIB’s decision to not prosecute former Keppel executives

by The Online Citizen
02/02/2023
19

...

February 2016
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
29  
« Jan   Mar »

The Online Citizen is a regional online publication based in Taiwan and formerly Singapore’s longest-running independent online media platform.

Navigation

  • Editorial
  • Commentaries
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Community

Support

  • Contact Us
  • Letter submission
  • Membership subscription

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Civil Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
  • Politics
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Subscribers login

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

wpDiscuz