<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Sizzle goes out of Western food stalls
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>About 130 stalls have shut down as price-conscious diners switch to cheaper local fare </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jessica Lim
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Ms Tan Poh Shiang, 40, owner of The Grill in a Balestier Road coffee shop, now serves 70 plates daily - down from 120 plates six months ago. 'Customers compare prices with the rice stall next door,' she said. -- ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THAT quirk of Singapore coffee shops, the Western food stall, is languishing.
About 130, or 10 per cent of such stalls here, have already shut down, squeezed out of business, said Mr Hong Poh Hin, vice-chairman of the Foochow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association.
He estimated that 1,300 out of the estimated 2,000 coffee shops and hawker centres here have at least one Western food stall.
A Straits Times check with 25 stalls here illustrated the situation: Among those still open, business has fallen by up to half in the last six months; five of them have closed down in the last one year.
Mr Hong said the going is tough for Western food stalls because they are up against fast-food chains.
These stalls are probably also competing against one another, with chains like Botak Jones and Astons Express putting a squeeze on the stand-alone stalls.
A third source of pressure is cost: Within a coffee shop or hawker centre, a diner looking to save money will likely go for local fare, since a Western food meal invariably costs more.
A chicken chop, for example, costs about $5, and a tenderloin steak, up to $15; on the high end, a 300g piece of prime rib eye at the Botak Jones chain of heartland outlets can set one back by $51.50.
Other hawker centre fare - chicken rice, mee goreng or a meal of Malay style dishes with rice - seldom costs more than $3.50.
Even the bigger boys among Western food stalls are feeling the slump: Eight-outlet-strong Astons Express has seen business fall 15 per cent in the last six months. Botak Jones, which gets about 800 customers at each of its 11 outlets daily, has seen its business shrink similarly over the same period.
Botak Jones founder Bernie Utchenik said: 'We see much fewer new faces. When times are bad, people identify us as being more expensive because we sell steak. They stop coming even though many of our items are below $10.'
The picture is worse at the stand-alone stalls. Business has dipped 40 per cent in the last six months at Lucky Western Food in Crawford Lane. It now serves only about 60 plates daily.
At The Grill in a Balestier Road coffee shop, Ms Tan Poh Shiang, 40, serves 70 plates daily, down from 120 six months ago. She said: 'My regulars used to come three times a week. Now, it's twice at the most. Customers compare prices with the rice stall next door and go there instead.'
But even that neighbouring rice stall is making slightly less nowadays. Though charging an average of $2.50 a meal, business has still fallen by 20 per cent, said its owner. The drink stall, however, is still getting a steady flow of customers, said stall assistant Zhang Ser Leong, 60.
Western food stalls began popping up 20 years ago - many set up by former hotel or restaurant chefs - but really took off in the last five years, said Singapore Polytechnic retail-management lecturer Sarah Lim. Few such stalls are likely to enter the fray this year. Those looking to open a food stall will likely sell cheaper food, since consumers are spending less.
Housewife Daisy Tan, 50, said: 'When I see a Western food stall, I compare prices and feel it is painful to pay so much when I can get a meal more cheaply.'
Western food fan Tan Choon Kiang, 46, now gets his fix only once a week, down from thrice. The salesman, whose salary has come down by $500 to $1,500, said he can 'save quite a lot' by having rice with a selection of dishes instead.
But taxi driver Richard Sia is staying loyal to Lucky Western Food, which he visits twice a week for the pork chop. He said: 'I won't give it up so easily. I would rather buy fewer clothes instead.'
Such loyalty is 'encouraging', but 'insufficient to sustain a business', said Mr George Kua, the 52-year-old owner of a Western food stall in Ghim Moh who will close his business at year's end. He said: 'We are barely breaking even now and it is not even worth the effort any more.'
[email protected] Additional reporting by Alessa Pang
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>About 130 stalls have shut down as price-conscious diners switch to cheaper local fare </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jessica Lim
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Ms Tan Poh Shiang, 40, owner of The Grill in a Balestier Road coffee shop, now serves 70 plates daily - down from 120 plates six months ago. 'Customers compare prices with the rice stall next door,' she said. -- ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THAT quirk of Singapore coffee shops, the Western food stall, is languishing.
About 130, or 10 per cent of such stalls here, have already shut down, squeezed out of business, said Mr Hong Poh Hin, vice-chairman of the Foochow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association.
He estimated that 1,300 out of the estimated 2,000 coffee shops and hawker centres here have at least one Western food stall.
A Straits Times check with 25 stalls here illustrated the situation: Among those still open, business has fallen by up to half in the last six months; five of them have closed down in the last one year.
Mr Hong said the going is tough for Western food stalls because they are up against fast-food chains.
These stalls are probably also competing against one another, with chains like Botak Jones and Astons Express putting a squeeze on the stand-alone stalls.
A third source of pressure is cost: Within a coffee shop or hawker centre, a diner looking to save money will likely go for local fare, since a Western food meal invariably costs more.
A chicken chop, for example, costs about $5, and a tenderloin steak, up to $15; on the high end, a 300g piece of prime rib eye at the Botak Jones chain of heartland outlets can set one back by $51.50.
Other hawker centre fare - chicken rice, mee goreng or a meal of Malay style dishes with rice - seldom costs more than $3.50.
Even the bigger boys among Western food stalls are feeling the slump: Eight-outlet-strong Astons Express has seen business fall 15 per cent in the last six months. Botak Jones, which gets about 800 customers at each of its 11 outlets daily, has seen its business shrink similarly over the same period.
Botak Jones founder Bernie Utchenik said: 'We see much fewer new faces. When times are bad, people identify us as being more expensive because we sell steak. They stop coming even though many of our items are below $10.'
The picture is worse at the stand-alone stalls. Business has dipped 40 per cent in the last six months at Lucky Western Food in Crawford Lane. It now serves only about 60 plates daily.
At The Grill in a Balestier Road coffee shop, Ms Tan Poh Shiang, 40, serves 70 plates daily, down from 120 six months ago. She said: 'My regulars used to come three times a week. Now, it's twice at the most. Customers compare prices with the rice stall next door and go there instead.'
But even that neighbouring rice stall is making slightly less nowadays. Though charging an average of $2.50 a meal, business has still fallen by 20 per cent, said its owner. The drink stall, however, is still getting a steady flow of customers, said stall assistant Zhang Ser Leong, 60.
Western food stalls began popping up 20 years ago - many set up by former hotel or restaurant chefs - but really took off in the last five years, said Singapore Polytechnic retail-management lecturer Sarah Lim. Few such stalls are likely to enter the fray this year. Those looking to open a food stall will likely sell cheaper food, since consumers are spending less.
Housewife Daisy Tan, 50, said: 'When I see a Western food stall, I compare prices and feel it is painful to pay so much when I can get a meal more cheaply.'
Western food fan Tan Choon Kiang, 46, now gets his fix only once a week, down from thrice. The salesman, whose salary has come down by $500 to $1,500, said he can 'save quite a lot' by having rice with a selection of dishes instead.
But taxi driver Richard Sia is staying loyal to Lucky Western Food, which he visits twice a week for the pork chop. He said: 'I won't give it up so easily. I would rather buy fewer clothes instead.'
Such loyalty is 'encouraging', but 'insufficient to sustain a business', said Mr George Kua, the 52-year-old owner of a Western food stall in Ghim Moh who will close his business at year's end. He said: 'We are barely breaking even now and it is not even worth the effort any more.'
[email protected] Additional reporting by Alessa Pang
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