Hmmm….Ya Kun Kaya Toast food and drinks prices have been raging recently. My favourite set A Kaya Butter Toast has gone up from S$5.60 per set to S$6.30 per set. This is a painful 12.5% increase in pricing. While I can understand the high inflationary environment leads to adjustments in pricing to keep up with rental, labour and supplies costing, there is this mystery that has been confounding me for some time.
Not sure whether it is my poor memory. I noticed that these days, when I request for Kopi-C instead of the normal Kopi, Ya Kun cashier will add another S$0.20 to my meal. It used to be only additional charge if I opted for Milo while coffee and tea are always at same pricing regardless of whether they are in the “C” form. The C is a less sweet version of the added milk for Kopi and Teh (which I heard from an older colleague) represents the “Carnation” evaporated milk brand that is commonly used in coffee-shops.
Mystery of why the healthier Kopi-C/Teh-C cost more than normal coffee/tea?
This is really an enigmatic puzzle. Generally speaking, it appears that the evaporated milk (less sweet) that makes up Kopi-C or Teh-C is cheaper in terms of cost to the normal Kopi or Teh. So why is it that it Ya Kun need to charge higher selling price for the healthier Kopi-C/Teh-C?
Moreover, our Ministry of Health has been trying to fight off the long term ill effects caused by excessive consumption of sugar (example: diabetics and obesity), so Ya Kun is encouraging Singaporeans to take more sugar by ordering the “normal sweetness” coffee and tea through imposition of extra S$0.20 penalty on request for healthier “C” version.
Any kind soul can shed light on why the weird charging mechanism by Ya Kun? Maybe my research on condensed milk pricing and evaporated milk pricing not accurate and condensed milk is extremely cheap relative to evaporated milk?
I had boycott yakun and toastbox for quite some time. Overpriced kopitiam food.
ReplyDeleteHi YX, good day to you! Yup...the prices indeed getting a bit kinda of crazy lately. Recently, I have been cutting down my visits to both Ya Kun and Toastbox except for the occasionally social gathering catch up with ex-colleagues/friends....else sure burn a big hole in the pocket.
DeleteHot drinks with evaporated milk has been traditionally more expensive than condensed milk ones, even at normal kopi tiams. Though I have no concrete facts, but based on observation to make a decent C-drink, if you had noticed, the evaporated milk content was poured until probably 20-30% of the cup, as compared to maybe 10%-15% or a spoonful for condensed milk.
ReplyDeleteArh...icic....thanks Bedokian for dropping by and sharing your observations. This is rather interesting. No wonder Ya Kun now charging extra for the choice of Kopi-C/Teh-C. Have been reading your blog posts often and wishing you a good 2024 for investment and a shortening of the "runway" to step down eventually and away from the rat race. Cheers!
DeleteThank you Blade Knight. Enjoyed reading your posts, too, and same to you, all the best in your FI journey!
DeleteThe toastbox near my office always has long queues during lunchtime. I have no idea why. Especially since less than 200m away there is a hawker centre stall also selling very nice Kaya Toast. But if there are long queues Econs 101 tells you that the product is underpriced, need to increase price so that queues become manageable. The REIT manager see business good, increase rentals, more money for REIT investors.
ReplyDeleteHi Hello World, yup....Toastbox at most shopping malls super long queue despite their out of the world pricing for a cup of coffee or tea. Fully agree with you...good for REIT investors...haha.
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