Suffocated by the bad air now, Tekka Centre food stall owner Zaiton Bee is considering shuttering the Muslim food stall she has been running for a decade.
The 73-year-old – who had already been struggling with the high costs of running her business – said she would serve about 500 customers a day before the haze situation escalated. Currently, she gets only about 200 diners daily.
Half of the seats in Tekka Centre were empty when reporters visited at 10am on Oct 16.
It was the 12th consecutive day Singapore had registered unhealthy Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) readings since Oct 5 – the longest continuous stretch of poor air quality the country has had to endure since the 2015 haze crisis.
This has meant a decline in customer footfall and revenue for Ms Zaiton.
She said she was pessimistic about whether she could continue running the stall with the lingering haze, her old age, the declining number of customers and S$4,000 in monthly costs, including rental, electricity and dish-washing fees.
“Now got no business, it’s very boring. We want to close the shop. If we cannot do business, maybe in a few months or next year we will give up,” she added.
The Deepavali festive season does not appear to be giving its usual uplift to stall owners at Tekka Centre.
Muhammad Yusof Syed Mohamed, a marketing researcher who helps his brother run a drink stall there, said footfall has dropped by about 30% since the haze began.
This time of the year, during the lead-up to Deepavali, the hawker centre is usually packed with families doing their preparations for the festival, which falls on Nov 8 this year.
But the haze may have contributed to diners staying at home or choosing to eat elsewhere.
The 43-year-old said: “About 40% of the patrons here are the elderly. They are scared for their health, so they are staying indoors as the Government advised them to.
“The haze affecting businesses is a small thing and for a few months only. But having elderly people in the hospital because of the haze is more serious.”
He said the haze comes at a bad time as the beverage container return scheme (BCRS) and GST hike to 9% have also hit the drink stall’s business.
Others in the food and beverage industry across the country have also reported a drop in customer count.
A Chinese food stall worker at Kovan 209 Market & Food Centre said its business can fall by as much as a third on a bad day.
“The customers are going to enclosed or air-conditioned places to eat or they will cook at home. Who would want to leave their house when it’s so hazy?” said the 53-year-old who wanted to be known only as Ling.
She hopes the Government will provide some form of financial aid to hawkers to help them through this period.
Patrons of the food centre said that the haze may affect their eating choices in the evenings when the air quality tends to be worse. A 57-year-old trader who was dining with his mother and wanted to be known only as Yang, said they might opt for indoors or air-conditioned eateries instead.
Stall owners at the Holland Drive Market and Food Centre were concerned about suffering losses because of the haze.
Ben Tan, whose 20-year-old pastry stall Sweet Bistro has been a fixture there, said he was between S$300 and S$400 shy of breaking even in September, when the haze first started. He added that there has been a 20% drop in the number of customers there.
Yakara Muslim Indian Food stall owner Arabia Banu said she suffered a loss of about S$200 in September because her customers are mainly the elderly, who may be staying indoors during this period.
She said it used to be difficult to find a seat in the hawker centre during lunchtime, but now even some of the more popular stalls are unable to draw large crowds.
From the grapevine, she heard that some of the other stall owners had even decided to close shop and go travelling to avoid the haze.
PhD student Duy Nyugen, 27, said he chose to eat at Holland Drive Market and Food Centre instead of another food centre right around the corner because it was more enclosed.
The computer science researcher said he was sensitive to pollutants and was working from home on Oct 16 because of the haze.
Homemaker, Nitha G, 40, a patron at a hawker centre at Tampines Park Connector said that she tends to stay home more often now – she goes out only when she is unable to cook.
An employee at Basil King, a Thai eatery at Tampines GreenGem, said far fewer people are eating out, with more customers opting for takeout instead. “Now, we sell about 300 plates a day, a lot less than what we sold before the haze,” the 38-year-old said.
Even restaurants, which have indoor seating, are not spared.
Harry’s, which operates about 18 kitchen and bar units across Singapore, said it has seen a sharp drop in footfall – approximately 40%.
At some of its outlets, the front doors have been shut to protect air quality indoors, said its head of marketing, Stephanie Howe.
“We have cordoned off the outdoor dining areas at some outlets, but this has not made a difference as we are not seeing any foot traffic at all,” she said. THE STRAITS TIMES
