Online prices vs Offline prices. Singapore is getting expensive...

A friend of mine visited from USA and his first reaction is. How bloody expensive this place is?  I was quite surprised to hear, as my experience has been quite fine with Singapore and in fact I found US, AU, EU far more expensive based on my travel.

I started comparing prices and then realized few things.

• Offline prices (neighborhood shops) offers the cheapest prices for groceries. For example, Fresh Milk which you can get for $5.20 is sold at NTUC, Giant online, Redmart & Cold storage for $5.70 (Yeah, all offering the same discount of 65 Cents from the list price of $6.35)
• Vegetables, Onions, Potatoes, Nuts etc are often cheaper at the market
• Some goods may be cheaper online (especially plumbing, electronic accessories) 

Now, another interesting thing is the food/groceries. I do not know if it is because of food delivery services or simply because of the cost of doing business but the cost of food more than doubled in the last three years. Agree, the inflation remained stagnant or lower but the food inflation is horrendous.

Based on Singstar information the CPI of food excluding food services in 2007 was 77.7, and in Nov 2017 it stood at 105.244. So in 10 years, we are talking about ~ 35% increase ??? Am I right here?

I wish I am not but it looks like it's real :|

It pays to return your tray but to whom? I hate this campaign after realising the outcomes

Source: Strait times


As you can see the Foodcourt owners can implement a system to promote tray return by investing 280,000+. Now the big question is where is the business case for investing. I wish the food court owners are getting the business case from somewhere else.

What I have seen in other places (near office/home) is since the campaign on Say YES to Tray Return, the number of old uncles/aunties been reduced. So the poor cleaner uncle who used to get his pay with dignity is now jobless and getting help from the Gov (Comcare). May be its a coincidence or there was really a retrenchment.

But overall, I don't like the idea of pushing some novelty item or whims of some business person on masses. This is what it is in Asia for centuries and the service culture doesnt need to be changed because of some ideas originated from western world. There could be many reasons why US or EU does this but for Asia/SG - Do we really need to follow the values and norms of western world blindly?

I don't think so.