Last Updated on 2020-02-11 , 7:26 pm
The 90s was the best time to be alive—I mean for us, Millennials.
We walked the streets without a care in the world.
Spending our days in the playground and who can forget the ice-cream man who will make a stop near the playground.
A perfect respite from all the block catching.
It was definitely a transition period from the old to the new, and as mentioned in numerous articles, Singapore is progressing towards being a Smart Nation and that leaves a big question mark to people’s jobs that will eventually be taken over by technology.
To add to the depressing list—the ice-cream cart business will soon disappear, according to The New Paper.
Though it is not taken over by technology (for now), the number of ice-cream carts around Singapore are dwindling.
I mean the last time I saw an ice-cream man was probably in Orchard, a few months back.
Mr Chan Yong Leng, a 69- year old ice-cream uncle, who has been in the business for four decades, told The New Paper that there was once a period where there were more than 50 ice-cream vendors lining Orchard Road but now there is only a handful left.
He added, “Nowadays, Singaporeans would rather spend money on having ice cream in an air-conditioned place.”
That is true; there is an ice-cream parlour on every corner of Singapore’s street, dishing out unique flavours.
F&N Creameries, the sole supplier of block ice-cream packs for the vendors, estimated that there are more than 150 ice-cream carts Singapore, The New Paper reported.
To be honest, that’s quite a surprising number. 150 of them?
They also mentioned that they have seen a drop in the number of hawkers, which has affected the number of hawkers who have purchased from them.
On top of tough competition from ice-cream parlour, operating costs is one of the factors killing the trade.
Operating costs can be very high, including the purchase of dry ice (which costs about $20 to $80, depending on the hours), wafers, spoons, napkins, bread and the ice-cream.
Can’t expect them to bring a fridge around, right?
Mr Tan Kim Phoon, a 75-year old ice-cream uncle mentioned that he makes about $60-$70 in a five-hour shift but on bad days, he won’t even make a single cent.
That’s even less than an Uber / Grab driver (maybe).
But F&N Creameries are trying new ways to keep the trade alive.
Four students from SMU—Vivian Lim, Lester Thio, Ethan Hu and Yeo Khee—, the winners of the F&N Creameries Ice Cream Brand Challenge interviewed ice-cream uncles on the daily challenges faced.
The ice-cream challenge gives students an outlet to create solutions and marketing strategies to revamp the existing business model and the ice-cream cart.
They came up with three new ideas.
Revamp the menu
To cater to the tourists, they suggested a menu that shows all of the flavours and options available since most ice-cream uncles have trouble conversing in English. But seriously, would tourists be interested in this?
Installation of solar panels
They hope that solar panels can be installed at each cart so that the uncles can save money on dry ice. Vivian Lim said, “Even before they start business for the day, they would already be making a loss of $72 just from the cost of dry ice alone.”
Branding
They also suggested branding the ice-cream uncles as a national icon and use social media to reach out to the younger generation on the location of the carts around the island. The problem? Those uncles didn’t even have a Facebook or Instagram account. How to do social media marketing?
They also suggested that local brands can work together to create unique and local flavours.
F&N Creameries is planning to roll out the new and improved ice-cream carts, which will include padded seats.
What Next?
There might be new initiatives well under way, but I can’t help but feel it is a lost cause.
Mr Tan Kim Phoon mentioned that he knows of three other ice cream vendors who have died.
“We are old. I don’t think you can teach us anything new anymore,” said Mr Tan Kim Phoon.
As much as we want to be optimistic, I guess these uncles have accepted their grim fate.
Maybe there should have a museum dedicated to these ice-cream men.
And oh, this isn’t the only culture that is slipping away from us. Seen any pasar malam around nowadays? Not those hipster ones. The ones we used to be familiar with.
No? There you go.
Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:
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