Here's a tip. The next time you order cai fan, whether da bao or dine in, and you decide to go for only rice + 2 side dishes, you may want to tell the server before choosing your dishes that you want only 2 dishes (liang yang cai er yi). That way, the server is likely going to give you a bigger portion of the 2 dishes. Because if you don't tell them beforehand, they may expect you to order a 3rd dish, so they will take only a smaller portion of the 2 dishes so that there is still some space in the styrofoam box or the plate for the 3rd one. When you tell them only 2 dishes beforehand, they will give you more because otherwise than the box or plate may look a bit empty or underwhelming and the server may feel paiseh (embarrassed). So if you tell them 2 dishes only, they are likely to give you a bigger portion for each. Coming from personal experience having tried multiple economy rice stalls.

The truth is that the owners don't want people to know the price since people will just aim for the cheaper ones.

The man who priced everything at 3.60 is the traditional sense of Chinese business. He relies on revolving sales rather than pricing it per stuff the woman said. I think it's how stall owners are bred, the guy thinks of his employees welfare and not be hassle and thinks about consumers. He is not at a loss but earning less. That's the kind of stall I want to eat at. Good job sir!

The lack of price tags for the dishes is the root of the problem. Think about it... is there ANYTHING else in SG that buyers do not know what the price is BEFORE we are asked to pay??

There are three reasons why economic rice is not economic anymore- Rental,rental and rental.

In Indonesia the warteg (economic rice stall) you can tell the staff your budget for your meal before hand, then they will choose the dishes that will fit into your budget. That way no surprise cost

Just order 2 dishes with your rice its cheaper and bigger portions. If you order 3 dishes like 2 veg and a meat it becomes more expansive and the portion for each dish is smaller. I think the factor that contributed to the jump in prices is the rental. Before covid a stall rent in a coffee shop is around $5k recently I asked its around $8k to $10k.

kao peh lo the aunty, they purposely want to keep the pricing vague so that they can chop us, all solution doesn't work then don't open lah obviously those solution will affect their revenue that's why all the rubbish reasoning

Nowadays i tend to avoid stores especially that does not state any fixed prices. Had a lot of past bad experience of being overcharged or given ridiculously small portions of the various dishes I have chosen. Truth is most of these hawker stall owners are short-sighted and simply want to take advantage of the situation to earn as much as they can despite knowing it will bring bad reputation to them and turn away any future customers.

Just an idea, they should have dishes presented on different colored plates, then price accordingly to the colors, just like sushi. Not priced because it’s meat or vege. It defeats the purpose when some dishes are more premium and some are not. Worst is, when somedays the dish is considered as premium some days it is not. Having a color system can ensure transparency and fairness ie ( veg mixed with minced meat but considered as a meat dish. )

The biggest issue now is the stalls mixing meat into veg dishes, hence making it meat. And also mixing premium stuff into regular dishes, marking up the price, essentially eliminating cheap options. I think I speak for most to suggest that stall should not do that, and mark out very very clearly, what are the veg, the meat and the premium stuff

My feeling is that these shop owners are very greedy. They just want confusion for pricing, so they can charge more. The clearer the prices the less they can charge arbitrarily.

Cai fan is still cheaper than Nasi Pandang please. That one is nonsense pricing.

Forgot to ,mention it's another great episode of good hosting by Steven and great content from CNA. The recent 2 part series on diabetes by Diana are very good too.

Cai fun still OK lah. Nasi Padang is the killer. Halal and mahal. Easily S$8, often S$10.

Govt shld enforce cai fan stalls to put price tags on the dishes.

Another tip, when the cai fan person asks, "Hai you? (Anymore?)" while gripping your selected food at that point of time, wait till they are done instead of telling them what you would like next. Otherwise, they'll likely skip gripping more and move on to your next selection 😂

I think the coloured "tag" would be a great idea! It reminds me of how sushi restaurants gives clear visual differentiation of pricing through coloured plates with sushi on the conveyer belt. Hygiene wise, clips can be replace with different coloured trays or just a plastic name tag/flag thingy and that would solve the problem. Speed of ordering is mostly familiarity to the new presentation format, customers that don't care about pricing would still order as they normally do but for those who are more budget conscious it would be a great tool and it would help to remove miss communication/feeling of being cheated when it comes time to pay. Regarding waiting time, I would rather there already be a que so that I got more time to consider my order. Plus, considering the price of the dishes is a important consideration factor in choosing my cai fan combo, it might even help me shorten my time of consideration if the pricing is visually clear(with colour tags or trays indicating pricing). I think it's worth a try:)

Just listen to the store owner, just plain excuses. Colour clip is a good idea. Can just use plastic or some plastic stands beside the trays.

As a customer.. i believe majority is already doing some sort of mental calculation before they Q or even while they are in the Q (or maybe its just me lol). For instance, i personally 'scan through' the dishes before i even join the Q so that i know which items to select/avoid - e.g. i would skip steamed egg with minced pork because it is considered 'meat', and though some pork cutlets/fish looks really appetizing, i would skip it totally because I am unsure of the price. So i feel that the coloured pegs idea might actually work and wouldn't hold the Q up much. It might in fact boost the sale of 'expensive' dishes as the pricing is now transparent, and i know how much i am committing myself to, rather than skipping it (coz paiseh to ask, or afraid to hold up the Q during lunch time) and also reduce 'price shocks'/disputes. How about colouring the ends of the ladle for each dish, if hygiene of pegs is of a concern? Just that the stallholders will have more items to wash at the end of the day.

In Japan they order by buying a ticket at a vending machine in quick service stores. That way the staff doesn't handle cash, and the ordering and costs are calculated up front. A big problem is the variation between fish sizes. If they're going to charge more for a big fish or a little fish it's hard for the customer to preorder "fish", someone is going to get the wrong amount. Still better than the "All fixed cost" method.

Whole lot of excuses from the Cai Fan store owners 🙄

The last experiment don't work, simply because you put a camera in their faces. Both portions are big IMO. In reality it's not like this.

Another amazing episode! Really enjoyed the hacks shared, will try them the next round I have it again. Thanks for featuring too. 😁

Renee from WANG knows that her stalls are price gouging. Why would she take recommendations to normalize price?

the most appropriate and transparent way is to display the pricelist like the example stall in the video. It may be looks complicated but it displayed the pricelist upfront and transparent in their pricing. Most economic rice stalls I go to, does not even display this pricelist.

Not just Cai Fun. Nasi Campur also. Price can be scary.

The research straight up say rental being the main consideration. Thumbs up for Steve moving into an economics perspective on the sweet spot of pricing

You should go and try the cai fan at City Square Mall food court. My first time and last time eating cai fan there ever. $11.

the problem is as Singaporeans we have a perceived set price range for certain foods, for a Plate of Pasta with garlic and Olive Oil, ppl can pay $10 or $12 but a plate of Mee Rebus for $5 is crazy to ppl. a cup of Kopi for $2 is crazy but latte for $6 is okay..

NGL some of these Cai Fan sellers are behaving like Auntie Fatimah selling Nasi Pandang. They see certain profiles they exploit. It's ridiculous some of quote prices by "face", or sometimes like Auntie Fatimah quote by race. Really horrible, shady attitude. Had a friend who experimented ordering same dishes as his co-worker (who was ahead of the queue), yet was quoted higher. I'm sure there are many who have experienced this sad reality.

Nice coverage, addressing something that is really irritating. the last hack is nice!!! Thanks for helping us to understand from different points of view, including from the seller's point of view.

If I m a Cai Fan owner, I won’t accept separating rice. More plates to wash means more water usage. Employee will complain double work n demand higher pay.

Thank you for taking this topic public.

Back in 2004 as a student i used to live in near marine parade and used to go caifan below hdb building, best food. My favourite was claypot rice from buggis station 😢😢 i missed singapore.

I always ask how much is each dish b4 I accept. If they bang their tongs & hurl vulgar language at me (which is common for me), I just walk away.

so the sellers DUN WANT you to stop to calculate your prices because it will HOLD up the queue, so they WANT YOU to BE BLUR and NOT KNOW the prices, and LET them tell you the Prices. i feel such stalls is not fair to consumers.. what BS saying oh if you know the individual prices you will hold up the queue..

About a month ago, I bought a packet of economic rice from Chang Cheng store at Redhill Road. I bought white rice, sweet & sour pork, cabbage and braised tau-kee, costed me $4.10. I noticed the signboard shows $3.70 for 1 meat and 2 veg. I wondered why I was charged $4.10 when I purchased 1 meat and 2 veg. So, I asked the mid-age lady who served me if the braised tau-kee was considered as meat and she said yes to me! This is ridiculous. I sent an email to Chang Cheng to request for clarification but received no reply. I believe NEA should step in & set some guidelines for those economic rice stores to ensure their pricing is transparent to consumers.

I worked in Singapore about 11 years ago... Back then, Cai Fan, 2 meat and 1 veggie, cost about $3... I was so surprised at how cheap it was, given that Singapore was famous for its high cost of living... But now... 😰😥😩

I agree that price of meat should be higher than just veg ones. The hack in the end - was the price point the same for both of you? If yes, I felt it didn’t really work except maybe separate rice means more rice; the dishes served weren’t more than the ones mixed with rice

Great episode ! Really appreciate this form of journalism. Keep up the good work.

Good journalism team.

The lady owner everything also got excuse, seems unethical leh

In Malaysia, especially in Penang, the operators will round up the prices of the dishes you take to the nearest RM. So the final price of the plate is always in RM and no sens. Even taking half portion of rice will cost you the same as one. Of course if you ask for added rice, the price of rice is doubled.

Super interesting study, i wonder if they controlled for potions too. I've noticed that in Western world, price hikes are made "in secret" as smaller portion size too in some products. When the changes are relatively small, let's say 10% decrease in portion or two changes of 5%, it's very difficult to notice.

I'd rather buy from a fixed price stall even if it costs more (>$3.50) than go for cheap (

in the Kopitam at CGH cafeteria, some of the more expensive items have special pricing then they will Put a Price tag on the dish like $2.50 or $3 to "warn" you that item is higher cost.. but its really expensive., imagine plain rice $1, then you add a popcorn chicken for $2.50 and 1 egg for $1.. and thats already $4.50 and when you add a veg, it can hit $6.

1. Lower and Hard Cap Rental of stalls especially for HDB coffeeshops and hawkers 2. Which allows the hawkers / markets to earn more. 3. Then can lower cost of ingredients. 4. Then lower cost of food.

What is price of last cai fun at end of video ? Are both are the same price ? I remember separated rice with dishes normally cost higher.

9:13 I'm really surprised at Steven's enthusiasm bec he passed full course of academy just for this video wowwww and He is so cute hahaha Thank you for making great video everytime :) +11:53 the cutest moment of Steven haha

Buying Cai Fan is like stepping into a landmine. I usually ask specifically to include only dishes that satisfy the set meal price criteria and not to add the premium dish. But i think most people feel it is humuliated to ask at all, that is when the problem arises.

The easiest way to do pricing is to have add on prices. Meat will be .50c more, seafood $1 more. If rice and 2 dishes cost $3 and one of them is with meat. Then its $3 +$0.50c =$3.50 With 2 meats it comes to $3+0.50+0.50=$4. This way it is very very simple to calculate. I do this at my own shop.

Rental increase, Utilities increase, GST hike, Greedflation down the value chain. In the end, working and lower class consumers suffer the most and are defenseless against these unscrupulous businesses.

In Malaysia, the calculation is based on feel and relationship with the customer. It is always possible to ask for discount if you feel the price is not justified.

Honestly I think most people don’t really care about exact pricing la, as long as the stall owners aren’t too greedy and charge exorbitant prices. Best way to avoid conflict is to avoid seafood and fish dishes in general.

If garmen dun whack kopitiams RENTAL or increase water n electricity tariffs….stall owners won’t resort to increasing their prices. Like the highly paid ministars, hawkers r not doing charity nor r they as greedy as our civil servants

In Malaysia, I coin this. They used to be economy rice here but lately they now more commonly called mixed rice. Because, after picking all you favourite dish, you will get mixed feeling after paying it. Enjoying your nice meal but thinking how expensive it can be (at times). To be fair, know to limit portion and select 2 type dish will make it cheaper.

Fixed pricing for x amount of items is definitely a viable business model. If that famous cai png stall in Hong Lim food ctr can survive this long running on this model and selling at even lower prices, it is quite a testament. End of day, the final decider on the price is the rentals.

Very interesting story

Normally ntwu canteen and a lot of old people stay areas are considered the cheapest. Midrange food prices normally nearby a lot of condominiums.

Always leemember : everything that happens in SG, be it the sudden disappearance of forests, the increase in the number of foreigners, higher and higher costs of living, stressful pace of living, low birth rates etc, can all be attributed to one mastermind behind it all : The House Of Lee.

Learn to be a wise customer also. If you only willing to pay $4, tell your budget to the stallholder. When ordering expensove things like fish or big pieces of meat, ask for the price before you say you want it. Don't order already then whine about it because you can't be a responsible and wise customer. Limpei eat cai fan always so cheap. Don't know what you all doing.

The $1 price tag for rice only is really BS. Because they use the same receptacle to transfer the rice to the container. The quantity doesn't change. Some places are obviously price gouging. Eventually they will get exposed on social media or people start patronizing less and the store will shut down. Also I'm really impressed by the business model of fixed prices. The boss of that store can really teach the others a thing or two.

The pricelist is so sus, guy mentioned cauliflower is 1.20, pricelist vegetables is 70 cents to a dollar with broccoli at 1.20, cauliflower AIN'T broccoli, its so much cheaper in general.

Along the lines of sushi shop pricing, place a coloured small plate on one side of the tray.

Hi Steve, can u do an episode on whether introducing babies allergens the earlier the better? There’s so many answers but we dunno how true it is!

The ? Is How much profit should the shop owner make? I have seen many come super early to cook and they hardly make much money for a full days work.

When all the older generation hawkers pass on can we ever get 3$ bar cho mee anymore. A lot has to change in terms of wages

My tiny estate with less than 20 blocks got expensive and cheap cai fan. Hwaker centre sell 1 meat and 3 vegetables is $3. The 2 coffeeshop in the estate sell above $4.50 for 1 meat and 2 vegetables. 1 of the coffeeshop even go to the extend to hide their curry chicken or cheaper chicken and pork dish behind the display cabinet. Only regular customers know they have thus will order. All those in display cabinet are expensive fish ($4 to $6 each), pork and big drumstick. Basically anyone new goes there can easily pay above $6 for cai fan. My whole family also boycotted this stall.

It will be higher comes 2024, with GST at 9%.

Now a days every where in Singapore Economic Rice is no more cheap as long it is Food issue everywhere is so Expensive this days in SG. As in Kuala Lumpur at Sri Petaling ( Fatty Mok Mix Rice) you can get 2 vegs and 1 meat ( if extra 1 portion meat just add RM 1 to 2 ringgit means 2 vegs and 2 meat) with big portion white rice and free refill non stop for SOUP just for RM 7 to 8 = SG 2.30 also it is self pick not the seller scoop for you..

My house downstair selling chicken rice stall selling $2.50. The auntie is generous with the yummy rice and the meat too. Highly recommended 👌

It's not true that older housing estates coffeeshops have cheaper meals! In fact these days the coffeeshops in older estates are serving more expensive cai fan as their coffeeshops have changed hands with higher take over of proprietors example MeeWah Chang Cheng at YISHUN 40 million cs

Without watching the video, my guess is a combination of inflation + increase cost in rental and labour, especially when now cai fan store usually are owned by an organisation Group which hires people/chefs from China/Malaysia/Vietnam to serve you. Imagine 2 chefs, 2 server, and 1 cashier. That's 5 head counts. All these ADDS into your cai fan cost.

Same as Nasi goreng in Indonesia begin so expensive that is better cook our own meal.

just label each dish clearly. Human error is bound to happen time and again as they need to calculate fast. I find the lady's reason of unhygenic a bit lame. If you can wash the tray, you can also wash the metal clip that holds the price tag.

The red shirt owner only know how to reject ideas. Please lar, you want to do so much price accuracy might as well weigh the meat ya. Tbh, should put her to the test at her own store..ask her to calculate prices of 3 chosen dishes repeatedly as experiment and see if she can get it correct and explain her way out..if she can't, it's clear there is no clear pricing.

in the end , if you are a regular at the stall, i find i tend to go for FOOD items that are PER PIECE and not PER SCOOP or Grabbed with Tongs, so you can count and clearly see what you get. Let me quote an example, 1 Lor Egg, or Braised Egg ..can be counted.. you can see its 1 FULL egg (yes the size of egg used can vary), same for a Fried Sunny Side UP egg but when you order a EGG Omelette, or STEAM egg, they will give up a SCOOP of the steam egg or omelette and you dun know if that scoop is EQUAL to a Full Egg or maybe just 60% of an egg.. since Steamed Egg you add WATER to it, and some stalls DILUTE it by adding more water and the whole tray may use 8 eggs but they can scoop it 12 times.. and still charge you the same price as a Lor Egg. same for "meat" items. things like 1 fried chicken wing.. is per piece, while 1 scoop of sweet and sour pork.. you can get more cucumbers and tomato in that scoop than meat itself. but still pay for the same price as a chicken wing. Another "HACK" is having 1 Meat and 1 Veg only but asking them to Pour Gravy like Curry on the rice, since the gravy isnt charged and it adds flavor to the rice and you can make do with 1 meat and 1 veg for the rice and pay cheaper.. sometimes i just ask for 1 chicken drumstick from the Curry Chicken and pour more gravy.. you end up with 1 Chicken Drumstick and curry gravy rice.. which is like "chicken rice" in a way.. and you pay 1 Meat and Rice.. so its usually like under $3..or $2.50 in some places.. at times you may get a piece of curry potato with the chicken..

Love this host

Looks so good. Making me hungry

Should try check up on mala stores as well. Was charged $57 for 1 person just yesterday.

5:55...."dwellers of the HDB blocks" Excuse me Miss high SES Also, wished you had compared this to the Malay Nasi Padang

Totally agree with Renee of Wang Economic Rice. Packaging matters. Interspersing meat/fish with vege dishes enlivens the spread. Most people don't really scruitinise let alone haggle over prices of individual dishes because they usually work within an expected price range - anything within that range is OK.

sweet and sour pork can be "hacked" they can cook it with more pineapples and tomatos and when you ask for 1 serving you get 2 pc of meat and 1 pineapple 1 tomato in 1 scoop while another person may get 3 pcs of pork and 1 pineapple in his scoop.. so when the stall wants to "control" pricing, they add more pineapples and tomatos than meat and so you get a scoop with 40% meat instead of 60% meat, instead.. same with mixed dishes like bean sprouts with bean curd, when times is bad...you see 20% beancurd and 80% beansprouts, compared to a 40/60 ratio and still get charged the same price or more. Some stalls get Annoyed when you ask to separate the Rice because having 2 plates, 1 with rice and 1 with dishes means they use up 2 plates per customer instead of 1. so 100 customers will use 200 plates if everyone used hack..compared to 100 plates and they run out of plates FASTER during peak lunch time.

If they don’t list or group the pricing for all the items , I am still going to boycott all the way. Had enough with their nonsense with all those hidden pricing of “special” veggies meat and also by charging higher with just adding a little bit of mince pork or mini shrimp into veg dish. 🤬

For veg they should just even out the prices the cheaper veg they can charge higher to subsidize the broccoli prices, i believe in the end this way the stall will earn more and people will be able to calculate easier. BUT counting veg with tiny bit of mince meat as meat dish is rubbish no matter what la. Both solutions put up can work one... rejecting the clip solution cos of hygiene ... talk till like the caifan stores sipei hygenic liddat...the same tongs/ladle also dip into many sauces throughout the whole day la plus the tray that hold the food can be there half the day without washing cos some places they take the food from behind and just top up the tray instead of replacing. Zoning trays based on price also can work the argument that it will make the overall look less appetizing is just her opinion i mean how unappetizing can it get... I am pretty sure most customers will appreciate the convivence and that will triumph the slightly less appetizing effect... In the end I am pretty sure the ambiguity of prices is a strategy to make money so its intentional same as why the server will keep asking "还有?“ so I dun think they will change, consumers just have to be careful and honestly with experience people normally can get cheap cheap meals at CaiFan one.

How did Daiso operate with a single price point pre-threepy days? Some items earn less while some items gave higher profit margin but net net the profits should work out. Just have a handful of fixed price levels (eg veg, meat, premium meat) ... The profits within each price level should work out within themselves

So simply put it very difficult for hawker centers to charge an affordable pricing meals lists due to high rental costs and cost of ingredients. Thus we just need to relay on hacks psychological technique and some lady luck to get more portions lol.

In Hong Kong they call these 兩餸飯, 三餸飯 meaning 2 dishes rice, 3 dishes rice. In Panda Express, they are served in the style of entre'e and sides; with the Ang Mo name they are no more economic 😅

Now in the USA such a meal or a bowl of noodle usually costs around $18-20 USD

菜饭 literally vegetable rice but also means dishes (+) rice. Like we would say "要叫多少道菜“ meaning, "how many dishes are we ordering?"

I order 2 vegetables and rice at my economy rice in yishun. Cost me 2 dollars, but the vendor gave me huge portions...shoik . I avoid adding meat or fish as it will be so much more expensive. So I have no choice but to tighten my wallet more than ever before.

if the clip gets dirty from the gravy then just wash it properly? if you are attracting pest the fault would be on how you keep your stall clean, not because of a clip. Clip cannot dip into different sauces because of hygiene issue but the staffs use same tongs and ladles for different dishes

Come to Serangoon North, still $3 when I visited a month ago 😊

I am getting 3 dishes which includes eggs or tofu for protein, and 2 veggies at coffee shop for $3.70. Depends where you buy and what you choose.

All these price increases are always due to the foodcourt like Koufu which having a high rise of rental price in their stall operation , so problem all came from the foodcourt owners!

Other end of spectrum : why is my phone bill so high

Since time equals money, and eating economy rice means you don't have to waste time cooking, that means the actual meaning of economy rice is 'meal that save time, which also save money'.

The most scam thing is vege cooked with some meat is considered meat price

Not even in Singapore, it's happening in Malaysia too 😂 Not so economical anymore