According to information from NTUC Fairprice website, it was setup in 1973 (then called NTUC Welcome) to “help stabilize the cost of living and prevent profiteering”. At the time, the global oil crisis triggered rising food prices, raising the cost of living in Singapore.
Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once praised NTUC Fairprice:
NTUC Welcome was born during the oil crisis when there was high inflation. In the 1970s, rising oil prices were threatening the basic right of ordinary Singaporeans to decent standards of living. The Co-operative fought resolutely against profiteering to ensure that ordinary Singaporeans would have access to low-cost daily necessities.
Despite razor-thin profits and the struggle to gain suppliers’ trust, it overcame all odds to enable families to enjoy certainty for their basic needs in our early days of nation building.
Today, it said that its mission is to continue to “moderate the cost of living in Singapore”:
However, its profits are no longer “razor-thin”. According to its annual report published online, NTUC FairPrice Group made $380 million last year.
NTUC CEO: Eating in is a lot cheaper than eating out
And speaking of moderating the rising cost of living in Singapore, Seah Kian Peng, CEO of NTUC Fairprice as well as MP of Marine Parade GRC, gave a “useful tip” to Parliament last week (10 Jul), telling everyone that “eating in is a lot cheaper than eating out”.
He said, “I think all of us know that eating in is a lot cheaper than eating out wherever you may go. So things like that may be simple tips but I think it’s useful tips which I think could be incorporated within the eight tips that you (Minister Chan) have.”
Seah has been with NTUC FairPrice since January 2001.
Minister Chan Chun Sing said at the end of his reply to Mr Seah: “We thank NTUC’s enterprises for continuing to show leadership in the pricing of its many products and services beyond groceries, today including, healthcare, eldercare and also childcare.”
