Singapore supermarkets to offer more live food

Supermarkets go LIVE
Move draws eager customers and chains see a spike in sales
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 11 Apr 09;

SUPERMARKETS in Singapore are offering more live food as demand for variety goes up at stores.

Less than three years ago, only two kinds of food were found alive and kicking at local supermarkets: fish and prawns.

Now, consumers can buy more exotic fare - such as bullfrogs, razor clams, oysters, soft-shell turtles and eels - from Singapore's major supermarket chains.

The pickings - killed, bagged and weighed seconds after they are netted from large tanks - are proving to be a big hit.

At Sheng Siong Supermarket, which sells the widest range of live produce, sales have been brisk, said its spokesman, who was unable to provide exact figures.

However, a Straits Times check at some of its outlets showed their sales of live food had increased. At its Clementi West store, about 150kg is sold daily, six times the amount sold last year, said assistant supervisor Wong Nee Kook.

The story is the same at FairPrice, which offers live food at its three hypermarkets in Jurong, Hougang and Ang Mo Kio.

In the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year, sales of live food increased by 30 per cent, said its spokesman.

In the middle of last year, three Cold Storage outlets started stocking live food as well - first oysters, then lobsters. Since then, demand has seen double-digit growth, said the chain's spokesman.

Customers say going live is the same as going fresh.

'I've tried frozen and chilled, but live is still the best,' said housewife Liew Chiu Hua, 58, who buys all kinds of live fish every day.

Fellow housewife Anna Lee agreed. The 60-year-old, who buys live food twice weekly, used to make trips to Johor Baru to feast on fresh seafood and buy some live food back to cook.

'I'm so happy that supermarkets here have them now. It's so much easier,' she said.

For Madam Tahyijati Mathawi, 43, the greater variety means greater convenience when shopping.

'Nowadays, supermarkets have everything. I can buy live shellfish and toilet paper,' said the housewife, who buys flower crab and gong-gongs (a type of shellfish) once a month from a Sheng Siong outlet that is just a five-minute bus ride from her home. 'I don't have to go anywhere else.'

At Sheng Siong, live food is now sold at all of its 22 outlets, up from just four in 2007.

To meet the demand, the chain is in the midst of upgrading: Over the next five years, all the stores will be equipped with tanks and stainless steel displays, at a cost of about $50,000 a store.

Currently, only three stores are fully equipped, and they sell more than 20 kinds of live produce each.

The other chains are also looking for new products that will extend their range.

Although customers are rejoicing, industry players say this deals yet another blow to wet markets, which are already suffering from dwindling sales.

Mr Chua Ser Keng, the president of The Federation of Merchants' Associations, said wet market business has fallen by about 30 per cent over the past two years.

'More women work and find it inconvenient to shop early in the morning, and supermarkets have everything now.'

This opinion is shared by fishmonger Yeo Lee Kwong, who has operated a stall in Ghim Moh for the past 32 years.

The 68-year-old plans to wind up his 'failing business' next year. He is now dipping into his savings to keep it afloat.

'Business has fallen a lot over the years,' he said. 'There are supermarkets everywhere. They are cleaner and have everything. How can we compete?'