Introduced in the midst of Singapore's circuit breaker period in May, Tekka Market's live online auctions promised much as an innovative and digital way to buy wet market essentials.
But the appeal of live wet market auctions has been short-lived, with sellers pointing to issues from taking orders to packing and delivery.
Moreover, after the circuit breaker ended on June 1 and the crowds started to return to the market, few also saw the need to conduct live online auctions.
Chia's Vegetable Supply was among the six Tekka Market vendors that participated in the first live auctions as part of an initiative organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to digitalise wet market businesses.
Despite 28,000 tuning into the first Facebook live-stream, the stall decided to drop out after just two rounds. Stall owner Victor Chia said the added hassle and costs involved in integrating live streaming into the business were simply not worth the trouble.
"We are used to the way where people just choose what they want and pay (upfront), but with live streaming it's a lot of extra work from taking the orders to packing and engaging the logistics company (for delivery)," said Mr Chia, who is in his 40s.
He added that paying to have goods delivered to customers places a further financial burden on stallholders - after IMDA's subsidies for the first two live streams dried up.
Mr Kino Lee, 19, the second-generation owner of seafood vendor LYHseafood, said there was a lack of understanding between stall owners and the logistics partner, leading to delivery delays.
Even though he was not involved in the auctions, he heard from fellow stall owners about the long delivery delays as stallholders did not know they needed to pack food differently.
For instance, seafood has to be tightly wrapped to avoid spillage during transportation and delivery.
"They just put it in a plastic bag," he said, noting that time was wasted repacking the items.
The Straits Times understands that logistics company Tada Fresh is the appointed logistics provider in Tekka Market. A check of the Tekka Online Market Facebook page revealed that the last live auction was by fishmongers 81 Sheng Yu on July 28. The post drew two likes and a lone share, a far cry from the first posts which saw hundreds of likes and thousands of comments. Tada Fresh did not respond by press time.
Lester Wong
Correction note: An earlier version of this story quoted Mr Victor Chia as saying that online streaming is not conducive for the wet market, which was inaccurate. We are sorry for the error.
