Hawkers who have not gone digital receive Instagram boost
Singaporeans set up accounts dedicated to supporting stalls struggling amid the tighter curbs
Madam Sun Wee Eng has been trying to register her hawker stall, 335 Hong Kong Roasted Meat, for deliveries on GrabFood, but to no avail.
Illiterate in English, the 64-year-old hawker told The New Paper in Mandarin that her friend had tried to help her get on the platform last month, but she has not heard back from GrabFood.
Located in the usually bustling Chinatown Complex Food Centre, sales at her stall have plummeted more than 70 per cent since dining-in was prohibited from May 16 to curb the Covid-19 spread in the community.
Despite lowering the prices of her dishes by 50 cents and $1, Madam Sun still throws away a lot of leftover food daily.
"During the circuit breaker (last year), people still came out to buy food. But this time, more are scared and choose to stay home," she said.
Madam Sun said her children, who hold high-paying jobs, are not keen to help her go online and have instead urged her to retire since the pandemic started.
A recent report by The Straits Times said the food and beverage (F&B) sector is among the worst hit by the tightened restrictions, with a spokesman for the Restaurant Association of Singapore saying F&B outlets saw reduced sales of between 40 per cent and 90 per cent over the first few days of the new measures.
While an SG Digital Office has been set up recently and outreach efforts conducted by the Government to help stallholders embrace technology, there are elderly hawkers like Madam Sun who are not equipped to go online or choose not to use delivery services because of the cost. And they get left behind.
Enter Instagram account @wheretodapao.
Launched last Friday by three sisters , the goal is to support this vulnerable group by encouraging customers to patronise their stalls with takeaway orders. In just a few days, it has already attracted more than 21,000 followers.
One of the sisters, Ms Jocelyn Ng, 24, a social media executive, told TNP: "Instead of providing food reviews, we wanted to feature the personal stories of these elderly hawkers so that our followers can understand them better. Many want an online platform, but they do not know how to make one or who to reach out to."
While many of @wheretodapao's followers have offered messages of encouragement and praise, others helped create an Excel spreadsheet to categorise the locations of featured hawker stalls. Some also volunteered to assist the hawkers in digitalisation or even be drivers to deliver their food.
Ms Ng said: "We are really touched by the kind gestures of Singaporeans, and this page is a collective effort from all of them."
Other Instagram accounts have also taken on this mantle, like @savetheelderlyhawkers and @wakeupsingapore.
The latter, which has a following of more than 89,000, launched a crowdsourcing campaign on Saturday urging followers to submit entries of hawkers who are not on delivery platforms and need a leg up.
Meanwhile, other elderly hawkers are getting help from their children.
Operations executive Jasmin Teo, 26, has set up a link in her Shopee shop to sell coffee powder from her parents' drinks stall, Sunrise Traditional Coffee and Toast, at Market Street Interim Hawker Centre.
Ms Teo said: "My parents wanted their regular customers to still be able to get their daily fix, so they thought about selling their kopi powder online."
Her younger sister has also posted about the stall and its online sales on Facebook group Hawkers United - Dabao 2020, where many people have left encouraging comments and supported the business.
Mr Melvin Chew, who runs Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck and Kway Chap at Chinatown Complex Food Centre and founded Facebook group Hawkers United - Dabao 2020 last April, has been organising group buys to support hawkers who do not provide delivery services.
He said: "While helpful, we cannot always depend on government rental waivers, subsidies and funding. It is crucial that all Singaporeans unite and support one another in our local businesses."
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