For the first time, Sheng Siong will have 16 outlets open on the first and second day of Chinese New Year.

These outlets will be open from 8am to 6pm on Jan 28 and 29.

The supermarket chain will also be extending opening hours on Jan 27, the eve of Chinese New Year, by one hour to 4pm. This is due to customer feedback over the past few years.

LAST-MINUTE PURCHASES

A Sheng Siong spokesman told The New Paper: “Customers said they have to make purchases beforehand and the purchases have to last until we reopen.

“By opening during Chinese New Year, customers can make some last-minute purchases.”

They are not the only ones who will be open.

Next Thursday, 83 FairPrice stores will be open around the clock and 25 of its stores will remain open on the first and second day of Chinese New Year.

The Straits Times earlier reported that Giant Hypermarkets started extending operating hours from Jan 13 and all Giant stores will open as usual on the first two days of Chinese New Year.

Cold Storage will also be extending operating hours for some outlets in the week before Chinese New Year eve and seven outlets will operate for 24 hours from Jan 27 to Jan 29.

Retailers are also staying open to catch the crowd. All CapitaLand malls, like Raffles City and Ion Orchard, will be open throughout Chinese New Year from 10am to 10pm.

A number of eateries will remain closed over the festive weekend, though.

Only three Food Republic outlets – Nex, Vivo City and Ion Orchard – and only 12 out of 21 Din Tai Fung outlets will be open on the first day of Chinese New Year.

Sushi Tei outlets will also close early at 3pm on the eve of Chinese New Year. They will also be closed on the first and second day of Chinese New Year.

A spokesman said: “The bulk of our workforce are foreigners and most of them want to go back for Chinese New Year.

“If we can get manpower we can consider opening next year, but for now we are too stretched so it’s not possible.”

In case you’re hungry

CRYSTAL JADE GROUP

All Crystal Jade restaurants, including Crystal Jade Kitchen and Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, will operate as usual on the eve, but will close on the first and second day of Chinese New Year. Business will return to normal on Jan 30.

FOOD REPUBLIC

All outlets except Nex and BreadTalk headquarters will be open from 10am to 5pm on the eve of Chinese New Year.

Only three outlets – Nex, Vivo City, and Ion Orchard – will be open on the first day of Chinese New Year until about 10pm.

More outlets will open on the second day of Chinese New Year, and business will resume as usual on Jan 30.

RAMENPLAY

All restaurants will close at 3pm on the eve of Chinese New Year. Four outlets – Bedok Mall, JEM, Novena Square and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) – will resume regular opening hours on the first and second day of Chinese New Year.

Regular opening hours for the rest of the outlets will resume on Jan 30.

DIN TAI FUNG

All restaurants will close at 3pm on the eve of Chinese New Year, except the Marina Bay Sands outlet, which will close at 9pm.

On Jan 28, 12 outlets including those at RWS and Paragon will be open from 11am to 9pm.

Regular business hours will resume on Jan 30.

SWENSEN’S

All Swensen’s and Earle Swensen’s outlets will be open as usual throughout Chinese New Year.

hmang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 21, 2017.
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It is common for businesses to impose surcharges during Chinese New Year, but some have called off their plans to do so after feedback from customers.

HOW Car Grooming Centre in Sengkang told The New Paper they had planned to implement a surcharge of $30 since last Monday, but decided against it after hearing customers’ grouses.

The centre’s marketing manager, who gave her name only as Eve, said they wanted to use the extra income from the surcharge to provide better welfare for their workers.

“But we won’t be doing so now because we received feedback from customers about the prices being too expensive and they can better spend the money elsewhere,” she said.

“We understand that the economy is bad now and customers’ support and satisfaction is more important to us, so we decided to waive the surcharge.”

Eyelash extensions service Vivlash Beauty Studio in Bedok will be doing the same.

Owner Vivian Tang said: “I wanted to impose a $10 to $20 surcharge, but my friends said everyone would impose a surcharge during the festive season, so why not be different and share the joy with others.”

BOOKINGS

Mobile oyster bar, The Oyster Cart, had initially stated on its website that it would be charging an additional $50 fee for bookings after Jan 14.

But the founder of the four-year-old bar, Adam Loo, 29, told TNP they have not imposed the extra charge on five bookings so far.

“Our reason for the surcharge is to encourage customers to book early so that we can plan our schedule properly,” said Mr Loo.

“But right now, if customers can take up the available time slots we have, we will do away with the surcharge.”

For businesses that are going ahead with raising prices, a lack of manpower and crowd management are some reasons they cited for imposing it.

Beauty parlour Ohnails SG in Thomson said they started imposing a surcharge of $10 since Jan 9 and will increase the amount up till the eve of CNY.

Owner Cleo Chew, 24, said she informed her customers about the surcharge through social media last month.

Noting that it is common to have surcharges during the festive period as they need to employ more staff and work overtime, Ms Chew said: “There are always a lot of people booking their nail appointments as CNY draws closer, and everyone wants to book the same slots.

“I have and am planning to employ one or two more freelancers to help out but it is not easy as their requested pay is very high.”

Co-founder of steamboat delivery company Mr Steamboat, Mr Benson Chan, agrees.

He told TNP that the company had implemented a CNY surcharge of $30 since yesterday.

“We have exceeded our capacity of 200 orders per day and needed about 20 to 25 more drivers to help with the deliveries.”

Several salons and a pet grooming centre TNP spoke to said they will be rewarding their staff with the proceeds of the increased prices.

“It will also help to spread the customers out so that they don’t cram (their appointments) into the last week of CNY,” said Ms Bernice Chen, owner of pet grooming centre Petpawroni in Sentosa, who will be imposing a surcharge of $15 from today till Jan 26, with an additional $5 surcharge on Jan 27.

“Also, 20 per cent of the surcharge collected will go to our staff’s red packets.”

huienl@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 21, 2017.
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Infants and teenage boys received the most hongbao money last year compared to other groups of kids, said OCBC Bank.

That trend was observed based on data extracted from 125,000 OCBC children’s accounts between infancy and 15 years old, the bank told The New Paper.

Infants of both genders received about $990, but the gap widened as they got older, said OCBC Bank.

Boys aged 10 to 12 years old received about $274 more than their female counterparts.

National University of Singapore sociologist Tan Ern Ser said gender bias is unlikely to be the case, and that there could be other factors at work.

These include social class, number and generosity of red-packet givers, and propensity of red-packet receivers to spend the money instead of saving it.

He said: “There may still be gender bias in Singapore, but I am not convinced that this is reflected in the lower amounts that girls are getting.

“My sense is that educated, middle- and upper-class folks are less likely to practise gender discrimination, and with Singapore becoming more of a middle-class society, we would expect the latter to decline.”

POSB said it saw a 15 per cent increase in balances of POSBkids accounts last year. More POSBkids accounts were also set up during Chinese New Year for the past two years.

POSB said this can be attributed to the festive season and the convenience of opening an account online.

UOB predicts children will receive an average of $129 in this Year of the Rooster, $5 more than 2016, a monkey year.

Last year, Mrs Charmian Xie’s daughter celebrated her first Chinese New Year.

Mrs Xie was not surprised when her daughter received significantly less money from red packets than when her son celebrated his first Chinese New Year in 2011.

She said her son got several hundreds more on his first Chinese New Year, and she expected this because her son was also the first grandchild for both sides of the family.

The family also visited fewer relatives last year.

She said she does not differentiate between boys and girls, but will give closer relatives more money than distant ones.

The 32-year-old quantity surveyor said: “Last year, we just took the total and divided it by two, since both kids will definitely get the same number of red packets.”

DIVIDE THE MONEY

She added that she will continue to do this for her children in future.

Madam Seah Nee Lin, 50, said her children – two boys and a girl – receive different amounts only from their paternal grandfather.

Her eldest son receives the most, while her daughter, the youngest of the three, receives the least.

She said: “He thinks the eldest should receive more because they need to take care of the younger kids.

“The firstborn also tends to get more at first, because once you have more kids, people tend to spread the money among them.”

Madam Jasmine Lim, 45, who has two daughters and a son, said giving different amounts to boys and girls is an outdated practice.

She added: “This was practised in the days of my grandparents, who tend to favour boys over girls, or perhaps see boys as holding greater responsibilities than girls.”

hmang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 21, 2017.
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SINGAPORE – Punggol Waterway Point has closed two play areas as a precaution after an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) at a pre-school in the mall.

HFMD had broken out at My First Skool @ Waterway Point in mid-December.

The school is listed as one of the centres with ” with active clusters of prolonged transmission” on the Ministry of Health’s website.

Centres are deemed active clusters if there are more than 10 cases or more than 13 per cent of pupils over a period of more than 16 days.

A total of 23 children were affected and 20 had returned to school by the end of December, a spokesman from My First Skool said.

The school, which has 318 children aged from two months to six years old enrolled, was notified of its last case on Jan 16.

It stopped all outdoor activities when the first case was reported, and the pupils have not been using the play areas in the mall since then, added the spokesman.

“Besides sanitising the centre daily, we have also been adding a stronger disinfecting solution since last Friday,” she said.

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Photo Gallery

HFMD outbreak in Singapore

Source:

The Straits Times

KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital

Glynisia Yeo

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Waterway Point said it has thoroughly cleaned and disinfected the mall’s play areas – Wonderland and Happy Park.

The mall did not say when the parks were closed, and it is not known when they will re-open, but they will “actively monitor” the situation at My First Skool.

Its spokesman said: “We take the safety and hygiene at our mall seriously. Due to the initial outbreak of HFMD at My First Skool located within the mall, we have stepped up our efforts and carried out additional rounds of thorough cleaning and disinfection at the mall’s play areas – Wonderland and Happy Park.

“While we actively monitor the situation at My First Skool, these play areas for children will remain closed as a precaution.”

Waterway Point also said that precautions are taken to ensure the play areas are hygienic.

“As part of our standard operating procedure at Waterway Point, regular cleaning and disinfection is carried out daily, including the play areas for children,” the spokesman said. “All our play areas display signs advising parents against allowing their children to enter the play areas if they feel unwell.”

HFMD affects mostly children and is easily transmitted among toddlers, making pre-schools hot spots for the disease.

Besides a fever and sore throat, sores develop in the mouth, throat, palms and soles.

This article was first published on Jan 20, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Pre-payments for goods and services are a growing concern, especially in an uncertain economy, says Singapore’s consumer watchdog.

The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) saw close to a two-fold jump in the number of consumers affected by company closures last year – with 877 cases – compared to 440 cases in 2015.

In 2014, there were 334 cases.

The bulk of last year’s complaints were about California Fitness, which suddenly shut its outlets last July after nearly 20 years of operating in Singapore.

While the beauty and health industry is known for getting customers to sign packages at discounted prices, other businesses are also joining in this practice.

Read Also: Landlord repossesses California Fitness’ Raffles Place premises

Case’s new executive director, Mr Loy York Jiun, told The New Paper on Monday that it had recently seen cases of furniture companies and parallel importers who failed to deliver after collecting payments from customers.

Mr Loy, who started his new role at Case on Jan 1, added: “I would have liked some legislative protection for consumers, but right now we could do more in terms of consumer education.

“As consumers, the bargaining power is in your hands until you hand over the money. I don’t think signing packages will go away, but consumers should be careful about signing expensive packages with attractive discounts as they are taking a risk.”

In a separate interview, former Case head Seah Seng Choon, who is now the non-government organisation’s adviser, also expressed concern over pre-payments and called it a “questionable” business practice that needs to be addressed.

He said: “As the number of companies collecting pre-payment increases, more consumers will be affected…

Read Also: California Fitness shuts all branches in Singapore

“More companies are jumping on the bandwagon because pre-payments from consumers are free cash or ‘loans’ to run their businesses.”

In such situations, the consumers shoulder the risk and could lose their money if the companies go under.

Retail experts agreed that collecting upfront payments should not be used as a business model.

National University of Singapore Associate Professor of marketing Ang Swee Hoon thinks more should be done to increase awareness of accreditation schemes like CaseTrust, which recognises businesses that are committed to fair trading and transparency to consumers.

For instance, CaseTrust accredited companies in the spa and wellness industry allow customers a cooling-off period of at least five working days to seek a full refund.

Read Also: $20.8m owed to California Fitness members

Prof Ang added: “Consumers should be more cognisant as well and do their own screening. The future is unpredictable.

“After you pay the company, you have limited options if it closes down. It’s a matter of penny wise, pound foolish.”

Nanyang Business School Adjunct Associate Professor Lynda Wee said: “It should be done minimally as the core business of the company is not capital management.

“If they collect more than they can service, it is not ethical. There should be a limit to how much they can raise in this way.”

But Prof Wee explained that pre-payments are also a form of customer retention.

“(The companies) cultivate loyalty through better deals. (It is also) a form of customer service as it offers convenience in payment.”

linheng@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 21, 2017.
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