Wolf Review(The Price of Being Fair- The FairPrice Group Story by Sue-Ann Chia & Peh Shing Huei)
The Price of Being Fair -The FairPrice Group Story by Sue-Ann Chia and Peh Shing Huei mentioned FairPrice Group was founded more than 50 years ago in 1973 to combat runaway inflation. The other mission was to attract more members to join the NTUC union with discounts for its affiliated businesses and services.
Our visionary Prime Minister, Lee Kwan Yew, had envisaged FairPrice, formerly known as NTUC Welcome, to moderate the cost of living in the 70s when the oil crisis struck, pushing basic staples and other necessities like rice and sugar to beyond what the masses could afford. In the 70s, Singapore is nothing like what we know now. The majority of the population are living close to the poverty line.
The mission is simple. FairPrice will source for cheaper rice and sugar far and wide by cutting away the middleman. It had an immediate impact on clamping down on widespread profiteering. Private grocers have to lower their price to meet the competition from the co-operative.
During FairPrice initial founding years, it was subjected to unfavourable treatment from mall owners when bidding for a space to run a supermarket. Most mall owners preferred Cold Storage due to their status as the prime grocer. FairPrice Group was not deterred by the rejection. If they can’t rent a place in the malls, they would invest in their own space, which helps spin off a big commercial properties arm that invests in retail buildings for expansion.
FairPrice found reasonable success in growing in their own turf, but their foreign investments had mostly resulted in losses. Other FairPrice brands include FairPrice Express, Finest, Cheers, Foodfare and Kopitiam.
FairPrice Group was once again called upon during Covid-19 to secure essential items from abroad to combat runaway inflation. Without the co-operative working behind the scene, toilet rolls would have been in short supply. Chicken prices would have soar to even higher level due to export ban from Malaysia. With FairPrice massive warehousing capacity, Singapore was able to import frozen chickens from as far as Brazil to meet the shortfall. FairPrice plays an important role to help neutralise any anomaly in food price, ensuring chicken rice continued to be a staple in our hawker centres during Covid.
NTUC Enterprises continues to evaluate the next step for FairPrice. Their social mission as an inflation-buster cooperative would make public listings unlikely for the foreseeable future. But never rule out the possibility. Comfort and Income were once businesses housed under the co-operative movement.
Special mention goes to the authors, Sue-Ann Chia and Peh Shing Huei for coming out with a concise book to explain the founding principles of FairPrice. I walk away with a better understanding of their core principles. Sometimes heroes don’t always wear capes. They go about their task quietly without much Food(fan)fare. The role of FairPrice is going to be more critical given the era of trade protectionism. Traditional food sources can be subject to geopolitical and climate changes, making sourcing food for Singapore much harder to accomplish.
I would like to suggest, FairPrice going back to their roots by setting up some sort of social supermarket in some of our most deprived communities, offering no frills and subsidised essentials to residents. The social supermarket can double up as foodbank. The book goes on to the Lone Wolf recommendation list for those readers wanting to know the history, ethos and social mission of the group. God Bless.
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