On Sunday (26 Jan), a Redditor who dined at a restaurant shared on the r/askSingapore subreddit a shocking price hike of S$2 on a plate of bee hoon due to Chinese New Year (CNY).
According to them, the restaurant did not put up any notice before this.
“CNY restaurant mark up, is this NORMAL?” the OP asked in her post.
The OP recounted her experience at the restaurant, saying the price markup was “insane”.
Source: Eat What Tonight, for illustration purposes only
The OP noted that the usual price for a plate of bee hoon was S$8.50. However, with the price hike, OP paid S$10.80 excluding GST and Service Charge.
This means the S$2 markup was on the dish alone.
Moreover, OP said that she only learned of the CNY price hike upon payment.
“I was not informed of the price mark up,” they said, adding that the restaurant did not put up any “notice or any information” regarding the price hike, and was only given the menu with no indication of the surcharge.
When asked, the staff at the restaurant said that their supplier had stopped working over the holidays, leaving the restaurant to “separately source” the ingredients. This allegedly led to the price hike.
“The mark up will end after CNY (all 15 days),” OP explained, adding that they dined at the restaurant on Saturday (25 Jan), meaning the CNY price hike would last 18 days in total.
Last week, Oriental Kopi, a popular chain restaurant in Malaysia hiked their service charge from 10%-15% but soon apologised to customers and scrapped the move after facing backlash.
Source: Singapore Atrium Sale, for illustration purposes only
Not only restaurants, but CNY goodies like bak kwa also increased their prices for the festive period.
Many netizens sympathised with the OP, with some users saying that they had also encountered the same issue when patronising the restaurant.
The OP replied to one comment saying that they would not go back to the restaurant after the “daylight robbery” experience.
Source: Reddit
A few users also said that it was uncommon for restaurants to upcharge their customers for the whole 15 days of CNY.
Source: Reddit
Source: Reddit
One user noted that it was “scammy” to upcharge their customers without any notice.
Source: Reddit
However, other netizens found the price hike normal. One user said that it was normal for suppliers to stop work due to manpower shortage, as they might spend their holiday in their home country.
Another user said that the price hike was completely normal even in Hong Kong. They advised avoiding eating out at restaurants during the festive period.
Source: Reddit
MS News has reached out to the restaurant in question for comments.
Also read: Tampines Restaurant Adds 10% Festive Surcharge, Customer Pays S$3 Extra For Order
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Featured image adapted from Eat What Tonight and RDNE Stock project on Pexels, for illustration purposes only.
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