Saturday, January 29, 2011

China Town CNY market Doing Poorly in 2011 compared to the past

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I went to China Town CNY market yearly, and more so this year, I went several times for different reasons. My friend moved his business there this year, and my old father today had to go to SGH A&E (he is very disappointed again with Cow Boon Wan's SGH, that they made him wait till after CNY to see urologist, and that cause him to have to put up with wearing a bag of urine throughout entire CNY).

I was raining when I was in SGH A & E, and rain reduced as my dad got discharged. My family fetched my dad back home, and I walked to Perl's Center to get some food. By then rain complete stopped. And I went into China Town's CNY market to film it.

The stalls which are paying high rents are obviously not doing as good as their past years, I think this year is the worst. My estimation is they are doing only a quarter of turn over comparing against the past good years.

It was impossible to hope to get a parking space during pre-CNY weekend in the multi-level car park above China Town hawker center / market. There is available parking this afternoon it seems.

There is no traffic jams like the past and the main roads are quite empty this afternoon.

There is a shopping crowed but very little compared with even last year. There are people spending their monies however their purchasing powers are much reduced this year, even when famiLEE LEEgime is claiming a mere 15% economic growth. We can compare this type of shopping scene against other countries CNY market where their economic figures are half or a third of what PAp had claimed. The figures and the facts don't match!

There is a prove of disparity in spending power however, when I saw a line of about 50 people lined up for famous Lim Chee Guan BBQ pork slices. 林志源肉干, I checked their price tags and their highest priced pork is toady @S$54/kg other BBQ meat slices range from S$52 to S$47 including beef. A man who I spoke to had just paid for 2kg told me that he spent over 4 hours in that Queue. So it is a minority who can afford this - this Q of about 50 people who waited here for hours, they have hundreds to spend on few kilograms of BBQ meat. The others just pass by, and looked on, and spent much fewer CNY dollars on lower cost items - like myself :-)


Sammyboy.Com Thread

Taiwanese CNY market this year - for Apple To Apple Comparison Taiwanese 2o1o economic growth figure (6.4%) is less than half of what was claimed by famiLEE LEEgime's 14.9%:












1月28日,警察在迪化街路口维持秩序,入夜的年货大街仍然熙熙攘攘。 新华社记者宋立东 摄影报道 (police need to be deployed to manage human and vehicular traffics)


1月28日,在迪化街一栋老建筑前,一家店铺的伙计坐在梯子上招呼顾客。 新华社记者宋立东 摄影报道
(hawker need to sit on ladder in order to be visible to his crowded customers)





Xinhuanet URL



Recorded at 3 places in Singapore on Saturday about 1400hr 29.Jan.2011 by Uncle Yap. This is when Lee Kuan Yew Govt claimed nearly 15% Economic Growth while the consumers' buying power seems obviously weakened compared to the past years. This was the busiest bustling New Year Shopping Area in Singapore which major population is Chinese. There is only 2 more days to New Year and this is the last weekend before it.