Last Updated on 2017-05-15 , 3:18 pm

If you think that the rental of pasar malam is cheap because it’s, after all, street stalls, think again. Recently, there has been a few reports on the cost of renting a pasar malam stall in Singapore.

The Straits Times reported that the cost of a pasar malam theme park stall, presumably those that are big and last for a month or so, for a month can be up to $10,000 a month, compared to mere $4,000 a month five years ago.

MyPaper reported earlier this year that sources told Lianhe Wanbao the daily stall is about $150 to $200, which is a totality of $4,650 to $6,200. According to one of the ex-vendors, eight years ago, it used to be $80 to $100 per day, which means it has increased twofold.

Most attributed the increase to development that has shrunken the space available for pasar malam—with normal demand and lower supply, it’s common sense that prices will increase.

In special-themed pasar malam like the popular Ramadan Bazaar, Yahoo! reported that the rental in 2015 for non-food vendor is at $2,500 while food vendor is at $7,000 a month—and the size is unknown.

Now, if you think that is expensive, wait till you read this: a report by SIFTED, an online magazine that writes about halal food, reports that Mohd Shahrin from Fiery Benjo Burger is charged a whopping $2,333 a day, up from the $100 a day he used to pay a while back.

Do the maths and you’ll realize that’s over $72,000 a month. While the numbers in the various report might not tally, here’s one thing that has definitely “tallied”: the rental cost is increasing exponentially.

If you add in manpower, you can imagine how much the total cost is, and how much more affordable it is to just rent a normal shop in the heartlands and spend some money on advertising.

While we talk about rental, we have yet to factor in operating expenses. If even restaurants with air-conditioner have difficulty finding permanent help, what do you think of the hot, noisy and contract-based work in pasar malam?

Seeing a young person selling burgers in a pasar malam is almost impossible. I don’t know about you, but I guess soon enough, with online shopping and rapid development, pasar malam will become part of our history books, just like street hawkers.

After all, just think about this: compared to ten years ago, how many times have you been to a pasar malam in three months?

Goodbye, pasar malam. It was nice knowing you.

Featured Image: SgPasarMalam – WordPress.com

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com