Stomper asks why vegetarian food is so pricey when veggies are cheap after measly $6.50 meal
A man was upset to be charged $6.50 for what he felt was a "small portion" of vegetarian food.
He had ordered a plate of bee hoon with curry vegetables and mock duck from a coffee shop stall at Block 269 Queen Street on Jan 29, at around 3pm.
Stomper Ang feels that the unfair pricing goes against the values of vegetarianism.
He said: "The vegetarian spirit and food is supposed to be economic and help less fortunate people to fill their hunger.
"Instead, this stall has taken people's kindness for granted and made such high profits from Singapore citizens by charging sky-high prices. It is as good as daylight robbery. I urge everyone not to patronise such stalls and to protest against them.
"We can get very good vegetarian food in temples for free; all you need to do is to donate your token to the temple and in turn help the poor people."
Asked what he feels would be a reasonable price for his meal, Ang told Stomp: "Let's put it this way. The food business is there to make a profit. However, many of the hawkers here in Singapore are doing it to earn extra unethical money from citizens who earn very little money just to make ends meet.
"If there's no increase in rental, raw materials, electricity and so on, hawkers should charge affordable prices so that everyone can survive. However, many of these unscrupulous hawkers take advantage of the government's GST increase to mark up their prices even when they don't justify the hike.
"Moreover, vegetables are very cheap ingredients compared to non-vegetables. However, the price is higher than that of a meal with meat.
'I have even heard of some coffee shops charging extra if you order kopi-o gao.
"I hope Stomp can do more to expose such unethical practices from Singapore hawkers. I would also like the authorities to set up an institute to investigate unreasonable price hikes from hawkers."
