The answer seemed to be with the small stallholders, particularly the wet market stallholders.

I wonder if there had been any studies conducted on the impact on wet market hawker stalls by the expansion of supermarket chains such as Shop N Save, Sheng Siong, et cetera, into heartland malls.

How many of such small retail owners were forced to give up their stalls and, for some, even early retirement?

Many of these owners are breadwinners for the family and are mostly in their late 40s and above. It would not be an easy feat for them to reinvent their businesses or 'transform their retail business model' through self-renewal or upgrading for two reasons.

Foremost, they are caught in their day-to-day running of their retail business and may not have the time nor commitment to do so.

Secondly, many of them are not highly educated, speaking little or no English.

There are a small majority who could afford early retirement - these are the ones whose children have grown up and are not dependent on the stalls income for a livelihood. However, this tends to be the exception.

Rumours have it that another Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 wet market will have Sheng Siong coming into the space to compete with the existing Shop N Save for the retail pie.

If this happens, the wet market stallholders would have to compete for the crumbs left over by the two supermarket chains.

Given the stallholders' small purchasing power and uncompetitive pricing, I wonder what is really left for the little folks and what types of government schemes/aids they can seek.

Koh Hui Kheng (Ms)