Marine Parade dessert stall charges S$2.60 for extra bowl as it tallies daily sales based on no. of bowls given out

Marine Parade dessert stall charges S$2.60 for extra bowl as it tallies daily sales based on no. of bowls given out

Mothership - News·2023-05-30 18:00

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Four Seasons Cendol, a dessert stall located at Marine Parade Central Market and Food Centre, was put in the spotlight recently after a customer claimed that the business had asked him to pay S$2.60 just for an extra bowl.

What happened

The patron, surnamed Mok, subsequently wrote a forum letter to Lianhe Zaobao detailing his experience.

According to Mok, he and his friend paid a visit to the hawker centre and ordered cheng tng from a dessert stall, which they wanted to share with an elderly friend.

As the elderly friend could not consume too much dessert, Mok decided to ask for an extra bowl from the stall assistant.

To his surprise, the stall assistant told him an additional "bowl fee" would apply.

Mok was taken aback by the response as it was the first time he was asked to pay for an extra bowl, and he did not think his request warranted such a response.

"I would have no issues with forking out extra if the owner were to charge us for takeaway containers. However, the owner was charging us merely for an extra bowl — I found it quite unreasonable," the customer added.

Response from Four Seasons Cendol

While Mok did not disclose the name of the dessert stall in his letter, Shin Min Daily News revealed the shop to be Four Seasons Cendol, as it is the only stall that sells cheng tng at the hawker centre.

A stall assistant told the Chinese paper that the stall had stopped giving out extra bowls to patrons approximately a year ago, unless they were willing to pay an extra S$2.60 for each bowl.

"Every day, we calculate the total sales based on how many bowls were given out to customers. If the number of bowls given out is more than the number of bowls sold, I would need to fork out money from my own pocket to fill in the gap. Every bowl of cendol and cheng tng cost S$2.60 at our stall," she explained.

Previously, the stall assistant used to lend bowls for free to patrons who asked for an extra bowl to share their desserts.

All she asked was for them to return the bowls to the stall after they finished using the bowls.

However, the majority of customers ended up returning the bowl to the tray return stations rather than the stall, the stall assistant shared.

Charging for extra bowls help cover additional dishwashing fees

Besides Four Seasons Cendol, another stall at the hawker centre, Yew Kee Duck Rice, also informed Shin Min that it charges patrons 10 cents per extra bowl.

The more bowls the stall uses, the more cleaning fees it incurs.

The stall has a small allowance of extra free bowls though.

The stall owner explained that every stall could only give out 20 bowls without incurring additional cleaning fees, so sometimes some customers might get a bowl for free.

The stall would normally only give an extra bowl to customers who order a lot of dishes and those who come with their children.

The owner also shared that every month, the stall would need to fork out more than S$1,000 in cleaning and dishwashing fees.

Only a few stalls charge for extra bowls at the hawker centre

Speaking to Shin Min, the chairman of the Marine Parade Merchants’ Association confirmed that the dishwashing fee was one of the operational costs borne by the stalls.

For the past four years, the National Environmental Agency (NEA) has been subsidising up to 70 per cent of the dishwashing fees for hawkers.

Nowadays, the stalls would need to foot the entire cleaning bill on their own.

The cleaning fee is 12 cents for a large bowl and 7 cents for a small bowl.

How much dishwashing fees each stall will need to pay will normally depend on how well their business is doing and how many bowls they need.

"The more bowls the stalls give to their customers, the more bowls they would need to take from the [cleaning] supplier. As a result, they would need to pay more for dishwashing, which amount to at least a couple of hundred Singapore dollars per month. Additionally, every stall would also need to fork out S$480 for table cleaning every month," the chairman added.

Nevertheless, the chairman also clarified that only a few of the 55 stalls in the hawker centre are currently charging patrons for extra bowls.

Top images via Shin Min Daily News & Four Seasons Cendol/Facebook

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