A man who ate at a Northpoint Mall mala stall ended up disgruntled with their pricing and took to Facebook to complain about their seemingly inconsistent rates.
Mr Luqmanul Hakin Bin Othman claimed that he was charged 50 cents per quail egg at the stall. As he ordered nine quail eggs, they cost S$4.50 in total.
Source: Facebook
On top of that, he also bemoaned the receipt stating that he ordered sausage when he did not.
In response, the stall manager said that after factoring in operating costs, the prices at a food court will inevitably be higher than at a coffee shop or hawker centre.
The manager also claimed that the prices on the receipt were accurate.
Mr Hakim, 24, told Shin Min Daily News that he ate at the stall with his wife on Monday (27 Feb).
The total cost of his mala dish ended up being S$20.10.
Source: Complaint Singapore on Facebook
Among the ingredients the stall charged him for was sausage, but he said he didn’t order any.
The receipt also shows charges for multiple seafood items, but Mr Hakim said he only ordered one seafood dish, which was pangasius fish.
“I assume the other two ‘seafood’ is mushrooms and Bok Choy I had ordered, and am completely perplexed by phantom/invisible sausages,” he wrote in his Facebook post.
“If I had known that I will be charged 50% on just quail eggs and ‘POT BASE B’, I would have humbly f*cked off,” he added.
After checking on quail egg prices later, Mr Hakim found out that a pack of 15 costs just S$2.50 at the supermarket.
“I understand that merchants have to factor in profit, but the price is too high,” he told Shin Min Daily News.
The 41-year-old stall manager, who declined to be named, said their stall has to factor in not just profit but also other things, including:
Therefore, the price at a food court will inevitably be higher than if one dines at a coffee shop or hawker centre.
Source: Complaint Singapore on Facebook
Though they didn’t name any specific cases, this was seemingly in response to the quail egg pricing.
While the receipt shows several ingredients that are different from what the man ordered, the stall manager maintained that the prices are accurate.
As the cashier uses a unified input method, ingredients that are priced similarly are simply labelled as “sausages”.
Fried beancurd skin, sausages, and beancurd all cost S$1, for example. Therefore, the cashier will input the price of sausages in the receipt to save time.
In response to dissatisfaction over seemingly opaque pricing, the manager added that if customers are unsure about how much ingredients cost, they can ask the cashier for an explanation.
The manager said they have readily removed any ingredients that customers have found too expensive in the past.
Shin Min Daily News notes that the price list includes only vegetables, mushrooms, meat, and seafood, while prices for meatballs and sausages weren’t included.
While it can be a struggle at times to figure out pricing at such stalls, asking beforehand can save customers a lot of grief.
Of course, one can always hope that the prices are listed transparently from the start for the benefit of customers.
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Featured image adapted from Complaint Singapore on Facebook.
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