This morning when I was having my breakfast, my mother said that the noodle that we were having has increased its price. My wife said these hawkers would continue to increase their prices because the consumers are willing to just accept it. It increased the price of the plain noodle from RM3 to RM3.20 It does seem like a 6% increase but has anyone ever bought a pack of the usual 500gm noodle from the hypermarket before? Assuming this 500gm noodle can be used for just 3 bowls of noodles, the increase by the hawker is totally unacceptable. I have decided not to eat his noodles anymore. I will eat the curry meet instead which has maintained the price thus far. Too bad, I am alone.
I remember when the price of sugar went up by 20 cents, the restaurants said that they have to increase the price of their drinks. Again, 20 cent is for 1kg of sugar. I am not sure how many cups of drinks can be made with this BUT an increase of 10 cent for the drinks was quickly accepted by all the consumers. Seems funny that we continue to complain and yet we can accept the increase easily? Of course, for the drinks, I would normally accept because I go Starbucks on a weekly basis and it would have been very stupid of me to complain the 20 cents up for 5 days and I can save RM1 but one cup of Starbucks would have set me back more than RM10, even if I have the Starbucks mug for the RM2 rebate.
Just a while ago, I was at a Starbucks at a low end hypermarket. The Starbucks was full and I even had to queue to purchase my usual latte. Fortunately, as soon as I decided to drink it elsewhere, one couple got up and I took their table. As soon as I sat down, two aunties who sat right beside me were complaining about GST. Both of them said the prices are now up by 6% or higher. The irony is, both of them were drinking Starbucks too. As my latte is the second cheapest option after Americano, I could see both their drinks are higher priced because they have got cream on top. Sometimes our actions are just so funny. I wish both of them the best in handling GST and Starbucks. On second thought, perhaps I was wrong. GST to them might have been Go Starbucks Today.
I have decided that for food, if the price is unreasonable, I will not step into the shop. I have also decided to influence my friends about places where the food is grossly expensive. I have also decided to be price loyal instead of brand loyal because I found out that even just changing washing powders would save me many times more than the 6% GST. I have never bought any cotton T-shirt for more than RM30 for many years already and for long sleeve shirts, I would only buy if the quality meets my expectations and yet it’s priced below RM50. If there are none, I would just wait for discounts. Seriously, GST is here to stay. We can continue to complain without the right actions or we can take real and concrete steps to mitigate it. Cheers.
written on 5 Apr 2015
next suggested article: GST and Property, nothing much, sorry.
0 Responses
Hi Chialih,
Agreed with you, i also noticed that there are hawkers and coffee shops has increased their price unreasonable, it happened to me when i ordered a cup of pat poh ais in one of coffee shop in Penang, it costs me RM 1.60 which is terrible unacceptable, nevertheless, even some of hawkers here is even scary by offering a plate of chay koay teow with RM4.5 without egg, i ordered 3 plates for dinner, it was very shock to me when the food was served, the volume is very very little, it was very disappointed to me when i see this situation and can imagine how greedy of those hawkers, personally, it became an ethic issue and not the good way of doing business. It was a real incident happened in one of coffee shops where just opposite of SPICE center Penang. i told to myself, i will never ever go there again!
glad to know. there are two of us who would boycott unreasonable shops. now, we just need another 10 million people to do this n prices would go back to usual margin and not the current where price increase is anytime…..