Finally, why did the survey not cover White Rice, which is cheaper than Fragrant Rice (which the survey said was selected because it was more popular)?

Being more popular should not mean that we do not cover it at all.

You mean being LESS popluar?

Tks curious. Corrected. :)

Good questions, Leong, and something I didn’t notice until I read this article. Probing pieces like these show that TOC is a far superior newspaper compared to that rag The Straits Times.

ok lah – you have completely debunked the myth that NTUC helps the workers, and CASE helps the public.

Thank you TOC. Keep up the good work so I can tell my wife where are the cheapest prices!! Defintely NOT the NTUC!

in view of the rising inflation and oil prices – any chance that the govt will reduce the petrol / diesel tax? Does anyone know how much is the tax right now? Woudn’t an abolition of such a tax reduce the inflation a bit for all citizens? I am sure govt will talk about a ‘targetted approach’ – I am getting quite sick of that word. Target this, target that, in the mean time it is the mosques and temples that are giving food vouchers, not our billion dollar surplus budget.

Damn sian!

I believe there is no tax on diesel & tax of 42 – 45 cents / litre for petrol. My guess is that it will not happen. If you can own a car, you are not exactly poor and the govt wants you to use public tpt AND most commercial vehicles uses diesel anyway (and there is no tax on diesel).

Does anyone recall if NTUC Fair Price ever claims or wants to be the cheapest (in everything) they sell. There are certainly reports in the MSM that they are cheapest in some essential items. I think lots of people mistakenly equate FAIR PRICE = CHEAP(EST) PRICE. We all know that its not true.

[...] The Price of Rice – The Online Citizen: The rise and fall of rice [...]

y the private company ,pp ,mosques and temples giving out more than our gahment . they r so remarkable

I think the difference lies in whether one is doing it as a job, for the money or doing it out of passion. Religious organisations do it out of passion to serve and be one with their God. Whereas Case and NTUC are doing it, (the survey) because the guy or gal doing it is just doing a job to earn a salary.
The challenge then is for these so called co-operatives management to instill as sense of purpose and passion in their staff and possibly themselves too, (lead by example). Of course it doesn’t help when our present leaders are harping on money either. The culture of a nation is moulded this way after many years.

It has been playing in my mind to initiate a membership MTUC (Membership That Unite Consumers) where all families unite/contribute & we buy wholesale
all our monthly essentials (rice/shampoo/soap/toilet rolls etc) ranging fm $100 to $200 & using online ordering with ‘block delivery’. This grocery online is just a start, when proven that we can get essentials cheaper than at NTUC or any other stores,there’s much more we can do & achieve jointly.

I like Derrick’s idea. From my experience, anyone can organise this as many wholesalers do consider bulk purchases. For example, one can get seafood at Jurong Port – fresh some more, and, vegetables & fruits at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre. The blokes at Jurong Port don’t sell under 10-20KGs of anything though but the Pasir Panjang Centre offers its stuff for retail as well.

3 to 5 households can get together easily for this purpose with minimum logistical obstacles. I would suggest getting neighbours to collude as distribution of the purchased stuff will be easier as opposed to relatives who live a distance away.

In any case, the very fact that our citizens are thinking of these angles is certainly a step in the right direction. We simply have to look out for ourselves as no one else is going to watch over us – certainly not our multi-million dollar government, by the looks of things as they are.

If you go to eat at those vegetarian indian restaurants or shops in little india, they are still shelling out the rice like nobody’s business. Are they not affected? The food prices are somewhat the same though.

Hi Derrick,
I have been thinking along the same lines. I think this can be easily done within small estates of a few blocks. The costs involved can be made totally transparent. If nothing else, people can find out what the true cost prices are, and compare that to the selling price in our ‘national’ supermarkets.

Is it legal in Singapore to set up such a non-profiting cooperative? Even if it is registered as a business, it will be one with zero profit, and hence no taxes.

Would be grateful to hear the more worldy-wise point out the faults with this naive idea.
The biggest problem I see is that people need to volunteer to take up the responsibility, without making a personal profit over and above savings made.

If someone with the know-how can set up a website that will facilitate resident groups all over the island to make this feasible, I think it will be a big plus to Singaporeans.

On another note, is it possible for someone with the information to publish the wholesale prices of household products on TOC?

Who would think that there is so much to read into the price comparisons done by ST or the likes of independent organisations like CASE. People really need a much fairer, unbiased source of information on the price of essential (for a start) goods to make intelligent choices. I think, an independent site which allows for anyone to update the information (like WIKI) may be the answer. I must admit this is not a perfect solution at least initially as the integrity of the information is dependent on the no of people updating the information. But over time as the site becomes popular and more and more people across all corners of Singapore access and ‘correct’ the information it can be a ‘trust’ worthy site. Just my thoughts.

I just wonder if the major importers are also the same major retailers, and they can simply adjust the wholesale prices “creatively” to appear “FAIR”.