Squeezing through crowds in Chinatown to get fresh mandarin oranges and pineapples during CNY is part of the festive experience for many families in Singapore.
This CNY season, however, streets are significantly quieter and fewer people are doing their festive shopping sprees at the Chinatown CNY market due to the rainy weather.
As a result, store owners are already resorting to cutting prices early into the festive season, just to ensure they clear their goods by the New Year.
While the rainy January might seem like a godsend for Singaporeans overwhelmed by the unbearable heat, store owners in Chinatown beg to differ.
The rain has reportedly led to smaller crowds in the once-lively market, leading to a 40% drop in sales compared to last year.
Source
According to Lianhe Zaobao, a store owner named Ms Huang revealed that business is tough due to an increase in rent. The rainy weather exacerbates her situation.
Store owners like Ms Huang have already lost money last year, and this might possibly happen again if the weather does not ‘cooperate’, reports Lianhe Zaobao.
To make things worse for shop owners, more sellers have allegedly joined the CNY market this year, adding to the tense competition.
Hence, peanut sellers are introducing discounts of up to 50% to attract customers to prevent a similar ‘disaster’.
Even our favourite mochi jellies promoters are quickly slashing prices early to ensure profitability.
This is a huge contrast to previous years when stores only started cutting prices a day or two before CNY’s Eve.
Yet, shoppers are still not ‘biting the bait’, despite the discounted prices.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, some shoppers are waiting it out till next week, hoping for prices to plummet even more.
Even though prices are expected to be lower next week, the market will likely be more packed as well.
So if you’d like to avoid squeezing like tunas, head down to the ASAP to enjoy the festive atmosphere and stock up on some festive goodies.
Featured image adapted from Citynomads.
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