Fishball Noodle Hawkers Who Relocated Stall Thrice In 3 Months Forced To Vacate Latest Shop In Yishun

To say hawkers Mr and Mrs Tan Hay Yam, aged 76 and 70, had a rough year would be an understatement. In the past few months alone, they relocated Teck Hin Fishball Noodle from soon-to-be-demolished Bukit Timah Food Centre to Commonwealth Drive in April, then to a unit near Kim Keat (which was in business for only three days), before finally signing a one-year lease with Coffee & Tea coffee shop in Yishun in July. They attributed the constant relocations to bad footfall at these addresses. Their daughter, Eugenia Lim, a home-based baker who helps them with finance and admin matters plus media interviews, earlier told 8days.sg that her parents are “fickle-minded”. 

Alas, their one-year contract at Yishun was abruptly shortened to just two months. The Tans were forced to prematurely terminate their contract on 31 August.

What happened? 

Sounding exasperated over the phone, Eugenia, 46, tells 8days.sg that her parents had gotten into a spat with the coffee shop’s supervisor due to rental issues. She explains: “My parents just started working at the stall for about a month, so their sales haven’t picked up yet. They were trying their best to pay up the second month’s rent, and actually paid half of it mid August. But the supervisor at the coffee shop kept bugging them [for the remaining rent]. My father didn’t have the best temper and he snapped at her, saying, ‘I already told you we don’t have the money now, but we’ll slowly pay you back’, in a very loud tone.” 

Tried pleading with Yishun kopitiam staff for stall extension, to no avail

Shortly after the incident, Eugenia got a text from the coffee shop’s admin staff, who informed her that her parents would have to vacate their unit by the end of the month. 

She tried to plead with the kopitiam staff to give her parents another chance, but it fell on deaf ears: “I very humbly told [the coffee shop folks] that I was sorry on my parents behalf if they’ve offended you, but what they replied was: ‘you know how your father talks’, and that ‘what’s done is done’,” she sighs. 

Kopitiam supervisor: “Their rental is $2.3K, but they only gave me $1K”

However, the kopitiam’s supervisor tells 8days.sg otherwise, saying that the reason for Teck Hin’s contract termination was simply because they hadn’t paid their rent in full. “Their rental is $2.3K, but they only gave me $1K, so my boss didn’t let them work here anymore. We didn’t fight. We have many [other] stalls, so it’s not like we can fight [in front of them], and Mr Tan kept telling me to give him a few more days to pay the rent, so I kept waiting and asking. Eventually I had to tell my boss about it,” she says. 

She adds: “Elderly people losing a bit of their temper is a small problem. I’ve worked [in this industry] for many years, and I’ve never complained about a small tantrum as long as you pay your rent.” 

Given just five days’ notice to vacate 

Another point of contention was the short notice Eugenia’s parents were given to vacate the coffeeshop unit. Eugenia tells us that she got a text message informing her of their dismissal on 26 August, leaving the hawkers just five days to cease all operations. Furthermore, she says the kopitiam had forfeited the remainder of her parent’s initial $2K deposit. 

“We had our existing deposit with them, with an outstanding $1.3K rental. The deposit was over $2K, so after subtracting the August bill, there’s still about $900 left, but they didn’t want to return us the $900,” she laments. 

To this, Coffee & Tea’s supervisor clarifies that they’ll return the couple their deposit, but only after they deduct all the necessary bills. 

“No regrets” on Mr Tan’s end despite $15K loss at Yishun stall alone

Despite this unpleasant business and losing a whopping $15K on his latest stall, Mr Tan tells 8days.sg that he has “no regrets” about his Yishun shop closing down: “That coffeeshop didn’t have much business from the beginning, it only picked up a bit after the 8 Days TikTok videos came out.”  

Eugenia chimes in: “Their sales were really bad at Yishun, many days’ worth of food were thrown away. Apparently, there were days where only 20 bowls of noodles were sold.” She notes that her parents spent around $5K each month on just ingredients alone. 

Admiralty kopitiam owner offers cheaper new stall after reading 8 Days article

There’s some light at the end of the tunnel for Mr and Mrs Tan. After our 8days.sg article on the elderly hawkers was published, a coffee shop owner’s daughter approached Eugenia, offering her parents a potential new stall in the event they decided to move out of their Yishun unit. 

“This coffee shop owner’s daughter approached me via the Teck Hin Facebook page, and told me that if this [Yishun] place doesn’t work out, I can approach her. So when this happened, I dropped her a text, and we touched base. A couple of days ago, we went down to take a look, and the actual owner, her father, was very kind and willing to waive off the stall’s rental deposit,” Eugenia shares. 

Though her parents would have to pump in another $3K to $5K to relocate again, the rent at this potential new location at Admiralty is around 40 percent lower than at their previous Yishun stall, which cost $2.3K per month. However, the Tans haven’t confirmed their relocation yet, and are still in discussions. 

Is Mr Tan confident that his business will fare better in Admiralty? “It’s really quite hard to tell,” he replies. But Eugenia notes that the footfall in Admiralty is slightly better than at the Yishun coffee shop, as it’s near some industrial buildings. Watch this space for updates. 

More info via Teck Hin Fishball Noodle’s Facebook. 

Photos: Glyn Seah, Eugenia Momo Lim

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