On Monday (25 Jul), Fernvale Hawker Centre, which is located on the 3rd floor of Fernvale Community Club in Sengkang West, has officially opened for business.
It’s a relatively large hawker centre with 28 stalls for customers to choose from. It’s surrounded by residential buildings and a condominium, and within walking distance to Layar LRT station.
Business was supposed to be good, except the power went out for two consecutive days.
The Frequent Power Outages
On the first day of its opening, the hawker centre blacked out once.
The next day, there were at least five power outages, which affected the businesses.
After Shin Min Daily News received the information, reporters headed to the location at around 9am to conduct interviews. Upon observing the hawker centre for one hour, they noted that the power went out once and it would affect the hawker centre by sections.
Whenever the lights came back for one section, the other section would experience a blackout. This situation would alternate.
Ms Cai, the 30-year-old owner of a wonton noodle stall told the Chinese newspaper reporters that she only managed to run her stall for 10 minutes before she stopped selling because there was no gas or electricity.
“Monday and Tuesday were the same. I only sold a few bowls of noodles and the power stopped, so the customers queued for nothing,” Ms Cai said.
Some stalls even gave up on selling anything, choosing to pull down their shutters for the day. While the lights and fans were in functioning order, it was noted that the tray return service was completely unusable.
Besides that, the owner of a frozen food stall also remarked that the members of the public were unlikely to visit the hawker centre when there’s no light.
Other stall owners interviewed by 8world News acknowledged that they’ve lost a fair bit of business due to the power outages, but they’re not overly concerned yet.
Above everything else, they were more worried about the ingredients that were being stored in the fridge, since no electricity means the food won’t be as cold or fresh anymore, which leads to a waste of ingredients.
Diners’ Reactions
The customers seemed to take the minor inconvenience in their stride.
One diner shrugged it off and said, “It’s nothing really, since it just opened for business.”
Another diner said, “After a wave [of customers] arrived in the morning, the power went out. Halfway through our meals, the power stopped twice. It happened once last night, once in the morning, and twice later.”
The biggest problem that diners face, besides the lack of lighting, is the fact that they can’t use their Kopitiam card.
Since the card scanner doesn’t have an electricity supply to run on, they can’t make use of their cards.
The general manager supervising the Fernvale Hawker Centre, who is also acting as Kopitiam’s representative, conveyed that they are working closely with the local authorities and the construction manager to resolve the issue.
Featured Image: Shin Min Daily News (新明日报)