With costs up, hawkers scramble for survival

Profiteering is the last thing on traders’ minds as they worry about high prices, loss of customers and smaller rice bowls.

PETALING JAYA: “I’ve lost hope in the government.”

This was the frank admission of Lili, a smiling woman in her forties who has been selling laksa from her stall for nearly 20 years at night markets around Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.

“How can I hope for the government to help me, when prices keep going up, year after year, with no sign of falling?” she said with a light laugh that did not reach her eyes.

She paused to stir her gurgling pot of santan-and-fish mixture, the thick soup releasing aromatic scents to the evening air at the weekly Petaling Jaya night market near Jalan Universiti.

Lili’s ramshackle stalls appeared to be one of the more successful ones along the road. She entertained a steady trickle of customers as she spoke candidly with FMT on how her business was going.

Her worry lines deepened as she spoke of how hard the recent price hikes had hit her. She said the cost of supplies had been rising steadily, putting her into a catch-22 situation: should she raise her prices and lose some customers or maintain them and see her profits dwindle?

She goes to a wholesale market every three days for her supplies. “Before this, RM300 was enough for one such shopping trip,” she said, “but now I need RM400.

“I used to be able to save RM300 a week. Now it’s about RM180, never above RM200. It’s been like this ever since the government announced the fuel subsidy cuts.”

When asked how she was coping with such meagre savings, she gave a shrug and said, “I am running this business to feed my children. That’s all I can focus on.”

But Lili’s laksa is popular and she thinks she won’t lose much business if she raises the price of her laksa a bit. She now charges RM2.50 a plate and is considering raising that to RM3 come this Chinese New Year.

“If customers can’t accept the price increase, what can I do? Everything is so expensive now.”

Bleak future

A few metres away from her stall was Yap, whose truck displayed rows of fountains for sugar cane and soya bean drinks. His prices have remained the same for four years.

“I have to maintain the price or lose my customers,” he said, gazing blearily at the mix of students and working adults walking past his truck without a glance.

“Prices are rising; whatever I earn is barely covering the costs. I think I can still survive like this for a few months, but after that…” Yap shrugged, his voice trailing off.

The future had never looked so bleak, he said.

“The government should do something—control the market, make sure raw goods are not so expensive. I’m not sure how exactly they can help,” he said, his rubbed his furrowed brow. “Just do something – anything – to help us out.”

As prices of goods escalated and more and more Malaysians were showing signs of restiveness, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak recently announced that the government would step in to alleviate the situation for the average consumer.

One of the actions he has taken is to order the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry to be firmer with traders who may take advantage of situation to arbitrarily raise the prices of their goods.

“I have ordered the ministry to use existing laws against any trader who announces prices or charges which are too high merely to get more profit,” Najib said last Friday.

But at the noisy Kuala Lumpur Wholesale Market in Selayang, traders interviewed by FMT laughed bitterly at the idea of profiteering.

“The rise and fall of prices depend on the market,” said Ng, gesturing towards dozens of cartons of vegetables stacked around him. “If I my prices are higher than my neighbour’s, I’ll be left with tonnes of unsold, rotten vegetables that I have to throw out onto the street.

“In fact, this happens often with vegetables that are homegrown. All of us traders get them in abundant supply, and selling all of it off is practically impossible.”

Another trader, Chan, said that rather than pushing the burden on consumers to pay more, the only way he could maintain his livelihood was to pay farmers less for his supplies.

“The vegetables we sell here are very cheap. We have no choice. Business is not good,” he said.

And despite the coming Chinese New Year, even Mandarin oranges are seeing a decline in sales.

“Traditionally, at this time of the year, people are already buying oranges,” said Lo, whose stall displayed plenty of the fruit. “But the demand now is low, I think because of the rising cost of living.

“Yes, prices for mandarin oranges are higher this year, but this has nothing to do with profiteering. The supply is fewer by 40% because the farms are yielding less, and the fruits are smaller. There has been less rain.”

Kangkung is cheap

Back at the Petaling Jaya night market, Mi was slicing up vegetables while bantering with his customers at his busy Yong Tau Foo stall.

At a query from FMT on the rising cost of living, Mi said: “The cost of everything is rising—except for what I sell. Otherwise, customers will stop buying.”

“Oh, and except for kangkung, too,” he added with a knowing grin, pointing to the bowl of fresh water spinach on his table, its leaves still dripping wet. “Kangkung is cheap.”