Consumer Watch

Following the announcement by the National Environment Agency (NEA) last Friday (16 Nov) regarding its plans to begin subsidising centralised dishwashing costs at seven new social enterprise hawker centres (SEHCs) as a part of its extension of the 'Productive Hawker Centres' grant to stallholders starting 1 Jan next year, netizens have strongly criticised the agency's move. Many netizens pointed out that …

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has included the co-funding of centralised dishwashing costs as a part of its extension of the 'Productive Hawker Centres' grant to stallholders at social enterprise hawker centres (SEHCs), which will take effect on 1 Jan next year. In a press release on Friday (16 Nov), NEA said the grant will soon include stallholders at "the …

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) announced the launch of the Open Electricity Market earlier this year. Starting in April, all residential households and businesses starting with postal codes 60-64 have the option to opt out of SP Services and choose their preferred electricity retailer. The Open Electricity Market will be rolled out progressively to other geographical zones too. Tuas Power …

Following the heated discussions surrounding social enterprise operators and their seemingly coercive method of running hawker centres of late, the National Environment Agency (NEA) announced earlier this month on 9 Nov that it has reviewed key contractual terms between the five social enterprises managing the seven new hawker centres and stallholders, namely Fei Siong Social Enterprise, OTMH, Timbre+Hawkers, Hawker Management, and NTUC Foodfare Co-operative. A stallholder who …

Disposable chopsticks found in Singapore are generally safe for use as they do not contain excessive amounts of sulphur dioxide residue, announced the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) on Wednesday (7 November) In a press release, the authority stated that it commissioned a test on 20 samples of disposable chopsticks sold in Singapore for sulphur dioxide residue, which may be harmful …

NTUC Foodfare, the agent that manages the Old Airport Road Food Centre, has retaliated against complaints made by hawkers which were made viral by user Gary Ho on Facebook, among which include almost round-the-clock operation hours and various hefty fees imposed against stall owners. Local chocolatier Lim Jialiang has pointed out in a Facebook post that while "Foodfare doesn't force hawkers …

A viral Facebook post by Gary Ho on Tuesday (23 Oct) revealed the extent to which hawkers are treated by the management of the hawker centre, and in this particular case, NTUC's oppressive rules against hawkers at the iconic Old Airport Road Hawker Centre following its takeover was highlighted. Mr Ho recalled: "When I went there yesterday, one of the …

NEA appoints NTUC to manage hawker centres Two years ago on 20 Dec, the National Environment Agency (NEA) announced its appointment of NTUC Foodfare as the new managing agent of seven hawker centres, following NEA's observation that the Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre – currently operated by Foodfare since its inception in 2014 – “has worked well”. The seven include 5 existing …

In a media report on Sat (20 Oct), it was revealed that currently, 13 out of 114 hawker centres across Singapore are managed by five social enterprises: Fei Siong Food Management, NTUC Foodfare, Timbre Group, Hawker Management and OTHM. Hawker Management and OTHM are subsidiaries of Koufu and Kopitiam, respectively. However, of the 13 centres, NTUC Foodfare actually took over …

Action will be taken against food court operators that are "found to be errant" by the National Environment Agency, according to Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor. Dr Khor wrote in her Facebook post on Friday (19 Oct) that the Government has been paying attention to "the concerns raised" regarding "social enterprise hawker centres," …