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Budget meals are needed, but why should hawkers bear the burden?
Many stallholders struggle to sustain their businesses. Is it fair to ask them to subsidise an altruistic initiative?
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Singaporeans expect affordable meals at hawker centres, but stallholders should not be expected to bear the burden of sustaining the budget meal scheme.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Teo Kay Key
Hawkers occupy a unique place in our society. We are proud of our UNESCO-listed hawker culture, but we sometimes place too much pressure on it.
People go to hawker stalls and kopitiams expecting a quick, affordable meal, and it is the one place where a billionaire might sit practically shoulder to shoulder with diners earning far less. Perhaps it is this accessibility that makes low prices seem less like a commercial choice and more like a societal expectation in these spaces.
