CNY Prices Settling In?

Today I had lunch at the new Teluk(it might've been Telok) Bayan food 1/2court. It was a bit too small in my opinion to qualify as a food court. A very well known Dato' Khoo was visiting Penang, and I had the honour of accompanying him for lunch. Can you believe that the chicken rice there costs RM5? I'm perfectly okay with RM3.50 or RM4, but RM5 is a bit too much.

Talk about Chinese New Year prices. Every time CNY comes the hawkers, butchers, fishmongers, vegetable sellers and even the fishball guy increase their prices. They tell you CNY's here, and therefore prices will rise a little. Okay, fair enough. However, I do not recall them ever lowering their prices after CNY. First they tell you the new heavier price tag will only last for the CNY month, and after that, they kinda forget to remind us the price-increases are here to stay.

If you ever have the time to confront them, they start pointing their fingers at one another. Just like the current rise in pork prices. The butchers are blaming the pig farms, and yes, you guessed it, the pig farms are blaming the butchers for the price-increase. So who's the liar?

Next time your cup of coffee goes up by 20cents because sugar goes up by 20cents per kilo, you can ask the coffee boy if he put 1 kilo of sugar into your coffee. It's worth a try!