Netizens Disagree with Recent S’pore Think Tank Study on Cost of Eating Out

Something has been heating up lately, and it’s not just the weather in Singapore.

There has been a hot debate on the study published by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) on Monday (13 March) that covers questions like which part of Singapore offers the cheapest meals and whether food and beverage prices have changed in the past few months.

The study, titled The Cost of Eating Out: Findings From The Makan Index 2.0, is an elaborate 180-page paper by IPS researchers Teo Kay Key, Hanniel Lim and Mindy Chong.

Don’t worry. You don’t need to read the entire paper to find out where affordable eats are in Singapore.

We got you covered. This article sums up everything you need to know.

Recently, some people have taken to social media to voice their disagreements on the paper.

What Do Netizens Disagree About the Study?

In the study, one of the findings was that some stall owners did not increase their prices even though they had to deal with the rising operational costs.

This point came up when a few researchers were interacting with many stall owners who shared about their struggles with juggling the increasing operational costs and not raising their prices to the extent that it will deter customers.

Which sounds like a good thing, right?

However, a TODAYonline article reported that some netizens seemed to disagree with the study’s findings based on the comments left on their Instagram post about the IPS study.

Some even talked about the notion of “shrinkflation”, which refers to when prices of goods remain the same, but the quantity lessens.

Relatedly, this was something that was addressed in the study, whereby it was acknowledged that there were some limitations to the collected data.

It was stated that “prices of food items were taken at face value, meaning that they have not been adjusted for the quantity and quality of the food items”, which meant the study did recognize that the concept of “shrinkflation” was not really factored into their data.

In response to the study, other netizens brought up ways to combat the rising costs of eating out.

On CNA’s post about the study on Instagram, some users suggested alternatives to dining outside.

One commented that it was up to the individual to eat out, and they could cook at home instead. Not to mention it would be healthier to do so.

Another reiterated that learning to cook is a much more affordable alternative instead of eating out.

With eating out getting more expensive, we may need to learn to work around this socioeconomic reality and adapt to the rising costs of living in Singapore.