Kovan Mall Charges $0.20 for Toilet to Encourage Others to Use Toilets in Other Levels

It’s expensive to live in Singapore. It’s so expensive that even shopping malls are charging Singaporeans for the usage of toilets.

Heartland Mall Kovan is now charging $0.20 for the use of toilets, but that’s not all there is to it. There’s more than meets the eye.

The charge only applies to the first-floor toilets, but not the second and third-floor toilets.

Here’s why.

$0.20 Fee Charged for the Use of First Floor Toilets to Encourage the Use of Toilets on Other Levels 

Heartland Mall, located at Kovan, recently put in place a fee of $0.20 for shoppers using the first-floor toilets. Toilets on the second and third floors, however, are free to use.

The only way you can get away with using the first-floor toilet for free is if you’re working at Heartland Mall.

Image: Shin Min Daily News

The reason for such an arrangement? The usage of the toilets on the first floor is high. The $0.20 fee was implemented to divert crowds towards other toilets instead.

It’s a little like the ERP system, except it’s for toilets instead of roads.

A cleaning staff is also stationed outside the first-floor toilet to remind shoppers that there are free-to-use toilets on the upper levels.

According to a notice placed outside a first-floor toilet at Heartland Mall, females may use the second and third-floor toilets for free, while males may use the third-floor toilets for free.

You might as well ask the public to tap EZ-Link cards to enter the toilets at this point.

$0.20 Fee Also to Help Mall Cope with Rising Maintenance Costs

The notice put up outside the first-floor toilets also explained that the implementation of the $0.20 fee is part of the mall’s efforts to cope with the rising toilet maintenance costs.

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The $0.20 fee was apparently implemented a few months ago.

Before the implementation of the $0.20 fee, diners from the nearby hawker centre often used the toilet on the first floor of Heartland Mall due to the $0.10 fee imposed on diners for using the hawker centre toilets. As a result, long queues tend to form at the Heartland Mall first-floor toilets during peak hours.

Now that’s one queue you shouldn’t be joining for the sake of joining lines. Not all long queues mean that there are good things.

$0.20 Fee Reportedly Implemented Four Months Ago

A 60-year-old hawker from the nearby hawker centre shared with Shin Min Daily News that the $0.20 fee was implemented approximately four months ago.

Before the implementation of the $0.20 fee, he would use the Heartland Mall toilets as they were cleaner than the hawker centre toilets.

He added that after the imposition of the $0.20 fee at Heartland Mall’s first-floor toilet, he has since stopped using the Heartland Mall toilets entirely. Instead, he now uses the hawker centre toilets, which are free for hawkers’ use.

Ah, it truly is the Singaporean spirit. Whatever’s free or cheaper must be better.

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Featured Image: Google Maps (Manoj T W) + Shin Min Daily News