sundaymorningstaple wrote:Aside from the Asian penchant of thinking all foreigner are fair game to rip off, the biggest reasons for the elevated costs is two things:
1) Shipping costs (as they don't sell as much as stuff from other Asian countries, they cannot fill entire containers so must pay a premium for broken shipments.
2) Rentals. Shop space is at a premium. Putting lots of western foods on the shelves is expensive, especially if they don't move the goods fast enough. Asian goods move faster naturally, so the turnover has faster rate of return per cubic foot of store space and less wastage from foodstuffs going out of date due to not enough buyers.
3) Of course, location, location, location. To be in the Expat enclaves means elevated rentals and therefore even higher prices as you are catering to the highest common denominator rather than the lowest.
This is a sound argument, and I would tend to agree. There is still some unknown piece of the equation missing though that should be factored in. On recent trips to Tokyo, Bangkok, Sydney I did a little price comparison on a few US made foods (not the local equivalent) and they were all more expensive here. Each one. To expand on point #1 -- maybe Singapore's size is the problem? The economy of scale? It seems crowded (especially in the grocery store
), but as a whole the country imports items in very small quantities.
quidsin (advice you probably don't want):
stay away from imported frozen foods (the quality has almost always suffered), make our own equivalent from fresh ingredients here
go to the butcher for fresher, better sausage
break the imported breakfast cereal habit (more expensive per kg than sirloin)
western food black out dates (we go home every summer, so we stop buying strawberries, ben & jerry's, all those luxuries items a few months before we go -- so it's a real treat when we get home...)
Learn to love your local food court. My husband and I went out to a neighborhood one, which I'm sure is quite pricey and had dinner with drinks for S$20.
One good thing (?) -- prices have taken a big leap recently. It's not all in your head.
