Circuit Breaker – Day 12
I have decided to get the bulk of the household’s groceries from Yihong Trading Enterprise and have it delivered. That’s what I’ll be using part of my $600 Solidarity Payment for.
Daniel Yap’s business had previously been serving the needs of the Bangladeshi population in Singapore. With many migrant workers locked down in dormitories gazetted as isolation areas, and 700 dormitory inspectors getting hired by a security company, it looks like many of his usual customers won’t be coming out for a while.
He has been busy taking photos of all his items in stock, and putting them onto a Facebook page, so that customers can now compile a list of items and order from him via WhatsApp. If your order is above $100, there’s free delivery to your home. Otherwise, there’s a $10 delivery surcharge, which is cheaper than some food delivery company’s.
Rather than having to search all over for specific items in a supermarket, and having to queue up and wait for payment, and then having to lug it all home, I decided that this would be a better option for my household. Some of the items he sells are in larger amounts than usual, but I think it’s a better deal to pay $10 for a bag of onions, than to pay $5 for 5 onions.
It is times like these that business need to change their business models. When things have always worked as they have, we don’t see the need to make any change. It is when something big happens and our bottomline is drastically affected, that we have to change, or die.
Some businesses will have to change not only their business model, but also their customer base. It requires learning a lot, but this may be the only way to survive. Fortunately, many business owners are resilient and driven.
Even so, your friends who run businesses need your support. Our government has given each of us $600. You can use it to support your friends’ businesses, and help them make this transition to a different business model.
Daniel Tay 