A netizen recently took to social media to call out the exorbitant prices that he was charged for a packet of cai fan with a fried fish (batang) and some young tau foo for $11.
Many netizens resonated with his complaint, describing the price of the food as a “rip off”, and the 64-year-old owner of the stall at the centre of this controversy has since responded.
Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, the owner of the stall, 64-year-old Mdm Cai, said that she is aware of the furore online about her food prices.
She has been running her cai fan stall at the Mayflower Market and Food Centre for the last 12 years, alongside her husband.
On the recent incident, she said that the customer who bought the $11 cai fan was not a frequent customer, and thus he was probably not aware of their usual prices for their food.
Only buys expensive, quality fish
She reasoned that there are “different grades of batang (the fried fish)”, and that the ones that she picked are “better and thickly sliced”.
She added that the cost price of one piece of batang is about $7 or $8, and that she only charged the netizen $9.
She also claimed that she didn’t charge the man for the rice and the takeaway container, and she then added “how is that expensive?”
The stall owner also added that she informed the man that the batang will be more expensive and confirmed with him if he still wanted to choose it.
She also spoke to 8World, saying that she only buy “fresh fish” instead of frozen ones, and that she “always buy(s) the expensive ones”.