Younger, tech-savvy folk help food vendors go digital

Last year, Mr Anthony Ng had plans to offer frozen food from his 18-year-old wet market stall, Joo Hong Frozen Meat, online.

As he would require help from his three children to digitise his business and they were then too busy with their jobs, he put the plans on hold.

But when the coronavirus pandemic led to a 40 per cent dip in sales and, subsequently, the circuit breaker measures, his children wasted no time in moving the business online. They set up a Facebook page for online orders last week.

Many small and older businesses like Mr Ng's have also been forced to make the transition to online platforms, and many are getting help from the younger generation to do so.

Mr Ng's 26-year-old son, Benjamin, whose job in the aviation sector has been disrupted, is helping his parents, both 56, at their stall at Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre during this period.

He prepares the meat and does the deliveries, which are now available only for customers living in the west. His sisters, aged 21 and 29, take care of marketing matters and orders.

With the online avenue slowly picking up, the elder Mr Ng has observed a new crop of younger customers.

He says with amusement: "As fewer older folks leave home for groceries, we see the younger generation coming out to shop. You can tell they have been given a list of what to buy, as some don't even know what pork ribs look like. We value-add by giving them tips on how to cook as well.

"If the online business does well, we may continue with it. It's the trend now anyway and about time we got on board.

" His business has also gained traction via Pasar United, a Facebook page that lists wet market stalls and grocery shops selling everything from fresh and frozen meat and seafood to fruit and vegetables.

It is a spin-off of Hawkers United - another Facebook group listing offerings from hawker stalls.

Scroll through the posts in the groups and it is evident many are put up by younger, tech-savvy people helping out their family members.

Mr Melvin Chew, creator of both groups, sees this as a ray of sunshine amid the Covid-19 cloud.

The 42-year-old owner of Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck & Kway Chap stall at Chinatown Complex Food Centre says: "From the first day of setting up the sites, I saw many young people helping elderly hawkers and their friends (in the food and beverage sector) go online and get awareness for their brands.

"As the F&B industry moves into the digital era during this pandemic, the young ones are key to helping the older generation go cashless and offer food delivery."

He has another Facebook page called Delivery United - to hook up F&B businesses with delivery drivers.

A slew of other online platforms has also sprung up in the past few weeks to list, for free, restaurants and hawkers that offer delivery or takeaways. They include F&B directory Manyplaces.sg by F&B tech solutions firm Novitee and digital directory Yellow Pages Singapore, which is supported by the National Trades Union Congress' Employment and Employability Institute.

Tough Time Tickets, an initiative by Preludio restaurant in Cecil Street, allows diners to buy meal tickets at discounted rates, which can be used within a year.

Another site, Tapaoforcause, is set up by digital marketing and consultancy Adgorithmics and funded by its sponsors. Adgorithmics' expertise helps merchants with targeted, algorithmic-driven social media campaigns, says its regional partnerships lead Silvia Halaman, 30. About 10 restaurants have been added on a daily basis since it started last week.

F&B veteran Michel Lu, who is also the programme director of Singapore Management University's F&B entrepreneurship course, has set up Findfood with a bunch of tech guys.

The website goes live today and lists restaurants and hawkers that offer delivery or takeaways - curated from those not on the three main delivery platforms, Deliveroo, GrabFood and foodpanda.

The site is for the long run, Mr Lu says, even in the post-Covid-19 era.

He adds: "The virus has accelerated the inevitable. Once people go online and realise they can do well, they will stay. We will not go back to the way things were, this is only the beginning."