London and some parts of Scotland.
It was quite an experience.
Some things were very expensive, some things were very cheap.
Looking at some simple things...
A sandwich at Pret a Manger, which is their regular sandwich shop, costs around 3 pounds.
Woah, heart pain. And that's the normal food. So I was paying around S$5 for a sandwich. It took me around 2 days to get over it. Then I realized there isn't much other choices for food. If I chose to eat at restaurants, the cost would be even more expensive. So no choice, sandwiches were one of the cheaper alternatives.
Then I went to Tesco. I was looking for food to bring back to the hotel...
Strawberries... 1 pound,
Portobello mushrooms... 1 pound
Chamomile tea... 1 pound
That's like S$1.70 at that time...
I was quite stunned.
Portobello mushrooms in Singapore are around $4 or more for a similar number and size.
Chamomile tea, I found the same box at NTUC. Same brand. Sometimes NTUC imports these. S$8.
Strawberries are around S$3 per box in Singapore.
I found a bar of chocolate at Waitrose. Another of their supermarkets. 1 pound also. It was a pretty big bar. I found the same bar in Singapore... around S$5.
It's quite ridiculous.
So I think... wow, we are really eating a lot of rent in Singapore. Cos that's what it is. In many western countries, cost of raw materials are cheap, but if they require humans to work, like at restaurants, then the cost increases.
Whereas in Singapore, it's somewhat the other way around. We can buy a cheap lunch at the coffeeshop downstairs, but raw materials at NTUC aren't particularly cheap. If we take into account the preparation of food and washing and effort, eating at the hawker center is actually much more convenient and probably very economical.
Naturally, in Singapore, if you want to eat some premium food, then you'll have to pay more money. Like ribeye steak, it's cheaper to buy your own and cook it. But if we're talking about daily food, cooking for yourself vs eating downstairs, is pretty comparable.
Whereas in western countries it's common for them to pack their own sandwich for lunch and bring to office. Or they bring their lunchbox from home and go down to the park near their office to eat their lunch. It's really a very big difference in culture and habits.
I have a friend who runs a coffeeshop stall. He says, first 20+ days any revenue is used to pay off the rent, the electricity, the staff, ingredients cost, etc... around 3 days of revenue is profit... So to him he says... cannot take leave days. Cos if close the shop for 1-2 days, means that's the profit lost already.
I suppose that's the cost of having convenience. We like to have our NTUC near where we stay, so that we can easily buy our groceries, and yet, that's where the cost lies, cos it's convenient, it's more expensive. Else, there are cheaper alternatives if we go to factories/warehouses at Woodlands or other places where they do the production of all these stuff, but in that case, the effort to travel all the way is already not worth it.
That's also probably why the western countries really drive out to their hyper marts on weekends to buy a whole load of groceries so that they can make each trip worth it.
Oh well... each country has their own conveniences and inconveniences. Can't win them all.
Rather, instead of comparing or complaining, we should ask ourselves, which conveniences are we ok to live with and what can we do without, then we adjust our habits accordingly.
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