Corn Dog Stall Vendor Says Daily Sales As Low As $14 At Deserted Bayfront Night Bazaar; Predicts $10K Loss

Earned as low as $14 daily sales 

In the video, Hazel revealed how dire the situation has been – despite the promising location and pretty setup, the crowd simply isn’t showing up. Their sales for the first five days were dismal: while it was a decent $560 on day one, a steep drop soon followed at $17 on day two, $14 on day three, $21 on day four, and $32 on day five.

“Not a single day was close to breakeven”

Kwazy Korndog is run by Hazel and her husband Kay Lam, 30. The couple started the brand two years ago after they noticed a gap in the market for fun Korean street snacks like corn dogs. They’ve been hosting pop-ups ever since.

Speaking to 8days.sg, Jay explained that the red flags started as early as day one of the event.

He shares: “The first day fell on a Saturday, supposedly the peak day because of the NDP [rehearsal] crowd. However, even on the first day, we checked with all the different vendors and no one made enough to cover the day’s rent. At max, someone earned $600 in [gross] sales.”

That’s when alarm bells started ringing. “If we couldn’t cover our rent [after deducting cost of ingredients] on the most crowded day, it was foreshadowing that weekdays were going to be bad.”

True enough, things didn’t improve. “None of the days so far was close to breakeven,” he added. Factoring in daily rent, manpower, electricity costs, and inventory, Jay estimates a total loss of $10,000 by the end of the event.

“Never heard about this event before,” say netizens

To cut their losses, the couple made the tough call to scale down their operations. “Because there was no crowd, we cut our part-timer shifts to save money,” Jay shared. “So my wife and I manned the booth ourselves to reduce manpower cost.”

Many netizens commented that they’d not heard of the night bazaar before watching Kwazy Korndog’s video. “What is this? Why no advertising one?” quizzed one netizen, while another said: “Really never heard about this event before.”

Trying to stay afloat

Kwazy Korndog is no stranger to pasar malams and pop-up events – they typically participate in about three events a month and are currently also at the Singapore Pet Festival at Marina Bay Sands. 

“I would say out of five events, probably four are profitable or break even. One would result in a loss.”

Event organisers respond to accusations of poor marketing

"The location is good, the setup is pretty, but the crowd is just not coming in," Hazel explained in the video. 

She continued: “Maybe there’s a lack of marketing by the organisers, maybe there’s just no weekday crowd. We all gave our feedback to the organiser, who replied saying they’re gonna do something about it. So I guess we just have to wait.”

“We just feel very hopeless,” she added, “and we have to take it upon ourselves to bring in as many people as possible.”

Wayne Lim, the director of Singapore Night Bazaar, which organised this event, tells 8days.sg that their team has been actively working on improving the situation. “We’ve been trying different marketing strategies and evaluating new areas for improvement daily.” He adds: “To date, we’ve already invested over $20,000 in advertising across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and 小红书 to promote this event. Unfortunately, the outcome has fallen short of our expectations despite these significant efforts. We’ve even taken it to the streets, literally standing by the roadside to hand out free shopping vouchers and engage directly with the public”. 

He concludes with: “At the moment, we’re working closely with our marketing team to explore alternative solutions and new tactics to drive better results. We’re fully committed and doing everything we can to turn this around.

As for why the turnout has been so low, Wayne says, “I think the weather is too hot right now, that’s one of the reasons why no one wants to go outdoors.”

SG60-inspired corn dogs from $7

In celebration of SG60, Kwazy Korndog has rolled out local flavours like the Milo Corn Dog and Mantou Corn Dog, where the usual batter is swapped for a fluffy fried bun casing. Prices range from $7 to $9 at premium events (like this Bayfront one), though prices drop to $5 to $7 at pasar malams in the heartlands.

"If you like food, nostalgic rides & want to catch the NDP fireworks, please stop by”

In her video, Hazel made a heartfelt appeal to the audience: "If you like food, nostalgic rides, beautiful lighting and want to catch the NDP fireworks, please stop by."

The appeal isn't just for her sake, but for all the other vendors struggling at the festival too. There are around 30 food stalls, including Sohtt, which sells sushi tacos and takoyaki bombs, and 8degrees, which serves Taiwanese grub like lu rou fan and fried chicken. You’ll also find stalls offering pasar malam eats such as Ramly Burger.

Kwazy Korndog is located at Singapore National Day Food Festival 2025, Bayfront Event Space, 2A Bayfront Ave, S018970. Open daily 4pm to 10pm till 10 Aug. More info via Instagram & Tiktok.

Photos: Kwazy Korndog

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