Proposals · Part II · Rebuilding the hawker economy

Buying Circles – Hawkers Bargain Together

Hawkers at each centre form small buying circles through their own association, and suppliers compete for their pooled orders on an open board.

RUN BY HAWKERS · NO MEMBER FEE, NO NEW AGENCY
BUILDS ON · OPERATORS' BULK BUYING & HAWKERS UNITED – DABAO 2020

The Seed Bank never buys, stocks, sets prices or picks suppliers, and never takes title to goods or money; every hawker keeps his own supplier and recipe. Through their own hawkers' association, the stalls at a centre form small buying circles (rice, oil, poultry, gas). Joining is voluntary, with no exclusivity, and a hawker can leave any week; a circle lead, usually a hawker, receives a small honorarium (an assumption, $100 a month), with four leads a centre at least and one for about every 30 stalls. A circle posts its pooled weekly volume on an open price board, wholesalers and distributors offer terms, and the circle chooses; centre operators' existing bulk-purchase offers join the board. A centre's stalls group-switch on the open electricity market, gas is negotiated by circle, and the association asks the platforms for a group delivery rate, or members use commission-free channels. Assumed savings: ingredients 3% and utilities 10% cheaper, commission 15% against 22%; the pilot centres test them and the evaluator publishes the result. The Seed Bank provides the price board (reusing the Plate Ledger's cost data), standard group-order templates and one part-time partnerships role. No member fee; at three centres the circles do not pay for themselves, so the operating budget carries $206,580 over four years.

Who pays

SELF-FINANCING · BUILDS ON

What it costs

$206,580 SGD · Years 0–3, three centres, in the operating budget

Granted, at three centres the circles do not pay for themselves, so the operating budget carries them

Budget lines from the ledgers
Year	Line	Amount	Section
Yr 1	Buying Circles (§2.12) – partnerships role, 0.5 FTE; price board and templates; twelve circle leads	$63,400	the Budget Book, B.3
Yr 2	Buying Circles (§2.12) – partnerships role, 0.5 FTE incl. CPF; open price board; honoraria for sixteen circle leads at three centres	$62,200	the Budget Book, B.4
Yr 3	Buying Circles (§2.12) – partnerships role, 0.5 FTE incl. CPF; open price board; honoraria for sixteen circle leads at three centres	$62,200	the Budget Book, B.5

What it builds on

Some hawker-centre operators offer their stallholders bulk purchasing; uptake has not been widespread (MSE, 10 Jan 2024). Hawkers United – Dabao 2020 runs a commission-free marketplace page (the Record, A.1.2).

Who gains

Diners: Your plate costs the same; a few cents less go to the middlemen and the delivery app, a few cents more to the uncle at the wok (§2.12).
Hawkers: About $435 a month more profit at a typical tendered stall from cheaper ingredients, power and delivery together (§2.12).
Government: No new agency and no legislation: the hawkers' own collective bargaining, which widens supplier competition rather than narrowing it (§2.12).

Model scores

Scored by the Follow the Plate model. How the scores work is in Follow the Plate, D.7. Cash and savings are shown separately. “Per programme dollar” is the household gain for each dollar the programme spends.

Buying Circles: ingredients (§2.12): Buying Circles: a centre's hawkers pool their weekly orders and suppliers compete on an open board; ingredients 3% cheaper
Amounts a year	Per tendered NEA stall (NEA centre, tendered)	National, at 25% take-up (3,550 stalls)
Programme cost	$0	$0
Net public cost	−$51	−$1,871,410
Hawker household: cash	$2,482	$10,282,245
Hawker household: savings and other gains	$297	−$324,233
Diners	$0	$0
Per programme dollar: all gains	–	–
Per programme dollar: cash	–	–

Buying Circles: power and gas (§2.12): Power and gas: a centre's stalls group-switch on the open electricity market, gas negotiated by circle; 10% cheaper
Amounts a year	Per tendered NEA stall (NEA centre, tendered)	National, at 25% take-up (3,550 stalls)
Programme cost	$0	$0
Net public cost	−$21	−$602,392
Hawker household: cash	$1,053	$3,717,180
Hawker household: savings and other gains	$126	−$59,572
Diners	$0	$0
Per programme dollar: all gains	–	–
Per programme dollar: cash	–	–

Buying Circles: delivery at a 25% group rate (§2.12): Delivery at a 25% group rate, not the 30% list rate: negotiated per centre, or a commission-free channel; 15% is the target
Amounts a year	Per tendered NEA stall (NEA centre, tendered)	National, at 25% take-up (3,550 stalls)
Programme cost	$0	$0
Net public cost	−$15	−$575,840
Hawker household: cash	$744	$3,084,088
Hawker household: savings and other gains	$89	−$117,948
Diners	$0	$0
Per programme dollar: all gains	–	–
Per programme dollar: cash	–	–

Where the library discusses it

§2.12 · the Record, A.1.2 · the Record, A.7 · §2.10 · §7.1 · the Budget Book, B.3 · the Budget Book, B.4 · the Budget Book, B.5 · Follow the Plate, D.4.1 · Follow the Plate, D.5.2 · Follow the Plate, D.7 · Follow the Plate, D.7.1 · Follow the Plate, D.7.4

Note: The savings and the honorarium are ASSUMPTIONS with no Singapore data. The circles are the hawkers' own collective bargaining, not a state buyer: the Seed Bank takes no title to goods or money and favours no supplier. In the debate of 13 Nov 2024 Hazel Poa, then a Non-Constituency MP, proposed centralised procurement through a new agency (the Record, A.7); the plan shares the aim of cheaper ingredients, not a single national buyer.