Source : Straits Times – 10 Oct 2009
They do not meet criteria for conversion into supermarkets
SUPERMARKET chain Sheng Siong, which is planning to take over six wet markets, has been told by the Housing Board that it cannot convert them into supermarkets.
The wet markets will have to stay because they do not meet the criteria for conversion into supermarkets, the HDB said yesterday.
Applications for such instances of conversion of use are assessed on a case-by- case basis, depending on the needs of residents, stall occupancy rate, operating hours and number of customers.
But while the HDB’s announcement should please residents who are loath to give up shopping in their neighbourhood wet markets, there is still a question mark over the stallholders’ livelihood.
This is because when Sheng Siong formally takes over ownership of the markets, it will have the power to decide whom to rent to, and at what price.
The six wet markets are in Choa Chu Kang Street 62, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1, Serangoon Avenue 3, Bukit Batok West Avenue 8, Block 623 Elias Road and Fajar Road.
Sheng Siong had earlier said it planned to run ‘air-conditioned markets’ on these sites.
When contacted yesterday, Sheng Siong’s managing director Lim Hock Chee said the chain will wait until its purchase of the six markets is finalised before deciding on whether to let the stallholders stay.
He added: ‘We will be taking over the markets the way they are and we will do what HDB says. There will be no air-conditioning, the markets will stay the same.’
The HDB said that earlier this week, it received an application from Heeton Holdings, the current owner of five of the six markets, to sell them to Sheng Siong.
It has not yet received an application from Bai Sha Market, which owns the remaining market, to sell the property to the supermarket chain.
HDB said it held a meeting with Heeton and Sheng Siong representatives yesterday on the use of the five wet markets after the sale.
It said Sheng Siong was aware it was buying the five properties as wet markets and had confirmed that it would continue running them as such.
HDB said it would like to remind existing wet market operators in HDB premises that approval is needed before a market can be sold or subject to a change of use.
At around the time Sheng Siong’s plans first made the news, it also came to light that there were plans to turn the only wet market in Sembawang into an NTUC FairPrice outlet.
HDB is evaluating that proposal and plans to meet the parties to discuss the site’s proposed use.
Meanwhile, stallholders in the markets that Sheng Siong is planning to buy told reporters about their continued anxiety.
Fishmonger Sia Chen Theng, 39, who runs a stall in the Serangoon Avenue 3 market, said: ‘There is still a big question mark. HDB does not approve the change of use, but will Sheng Siong let us keep our jobs? And if they do, will they raise the rent? We don’t know.’
Over at the Elias Road wet market, vegetable seller Guo Shao Jie, 60, said: ‘We just have to wait and see. We still don’t know if they will rent spots to us or not.’
Housewife Winnie Tan, who shops at the Choa Chu Kang Street 62 market three times a week, is relieved the wet market is staying, but she is also hoping that ‘things don’t change with the new management’.
And teacher Jessie Liau, 55, a regular at the Serangoon Avenue 3 market, said: ‘I like the concept of the wet market. I don’t need the air-con, and I like the stallholders. They are very friendly, and I hope they can stay.’
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