Y
Yoshitsune Minamoto
Guest
Pay more for your coffee fix
Coffee shops in Upper Serangoon, Geylang up drink prices for World Cup.
Singapore, June 12, 2010 - PLANNING to catch the World Cup TV telecasts at your favourite coffee shop? You may have to pay more. At the Y2000 Beer Garden on Upper Serangoon Road, prices of all beverages, including beer and stout, are up by 50 cents during telecast hours.
This means that a cup of coffee now costs $1.40, up from 90 cents. Beer prices have been raised to around $6 a bottle. The price hike will last from 7pm to 6am for the duration of the World Cup, said the owner of the 24-hour outlet, who wanted to be known only as Ms Jenny. A check with other coffee shops showed a similar trend. Why the steep increase? “I had to pay almost double the amount I paid to screen the World Cup four years ago,” explained Ms Jenny.
Based on SingTel’s and StarHub’s rates for commercial establishments, Ms Jenny would have paid more than $10,000 to show the matches on her three TV sets – one with a 52-inch screen and two smaller ones. Even by passing the extra costs to her customers, she said, it would still be “difficult” to recoup the telecast costs. But how would her customers react?
Not a big deal
Said Mr Lau Keok Meng, 44, a technician: “I don’t mind paying slightly more if I’m here to watch the matches. It’s not a big deal to me.” Regular customer See Ah Koon, 66, a deliveryman, agreed. The World Cup happens once every four years, so paying a little more once in a while is okay,” he explained.
Food stalls in the coffee shop will not be raising their prices. Stall owner Kent Tan, 36, plans to continue selling chicken rice during the matches, and nasi lemak later in the night. “I won’t be raising my prices. I don’t think it’s necessary,” he said. San Jiang Eating House at Lorong 12 Geylang, which will be screening the matches on five 20-inch TVs, will charge 20 cents more for all drinks.
A spokesman for the Foochow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association, which counts Y2000 Beer Garden among its 400 members, said it was aware of the price hikes, but added there was nothing to stop stall owners from raising the prices of drinks. He said that only four out of an estimated 400 coffee shops under the association have signalled that they would raise prices.
