Immersion Feature Article on Vanishing Trades

Graded assignment

An article written for Editorial and Feature Writing module as a graded assignment, about vanishing trades in Singapore.

Quiet business at Mama Shops

At a void deck at St. George’s Road, a mama shop owner sits quietly in his shop.

ALWAYS WELCOMING: Mr Kumar’s favourite spot in the shop is front of the cash register, where he eats his meals at and sits down to chat with his friend on the phone. (PHOTO: Rusyda Aris)

At the void deck of Blk 13 of St. George’s Road, a mama shop could be spotted opposite the neighbourhood playground. With its rugged-looking shop front, the shop possessed a kind of nostalgic charm to it.

Stacks of brown cardboard boxes, filled with various snacks, sat in front of the shop waiting to be opened up and have its contents shelved. Big, transparent plastic bags, filled with even more snacks, sat on top of these cardboard boxes. Beside them, red and grey metal racks placed outside the shop, have been shelved with potato ships of various flavours. The shop front was indeed colourful.

Like the front, the interior of the shop was just as colourful. An Indian man in a maroon shirt, sat inside, right in front of a cash register. His face was partially hidden by a small, white Yakult fridge. He had a white earpiece on and he seemed to be talking with someone on the phone, in Tamil. As I approached the man, he looked up, not the least bit alarmed. Perhaps, he had thought I was just another customer who had come to purchase a drink. A little hesitant and confused at first, he nodded lightly when asked for an interview.

Mr Govindarasu Satheesh Kumar, 35, is a mama shop owner. Mr Kumar works there throughout the week, shelving racks with newly arrived stocks and serving customers at the cash register. Coming all the way from India, he is now a Singapore Permanent Resident (PR), operating a small provision shop located a few blocks away from Boon Keng MRT station. While others may call it a provision shop, many are more familiar with the term mama shop, a name that many Singaporeans grew up with.

Mama shops are small, provision shops that sell sundry everyday items such as drinks, biscuits, instant noodles, canned food and many more. Traditionally, they are operated and owned by Indians, however there are mama shop owners from other communities as well. A typical mama shop that people living in Singapore would know of, would be the ones operating at void decks of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats. Other than those, some are set up in old shop houses, operating at the corners or against a wall space.

Mama shops were easily found in those locations. According to the National Heritage Board (NHB), HDB started establishing mama shops at HDB void decks in the mid-1970s. These shops were meant to cater to the residents living there, by providing them a place to buy basic necessities from. During the 1980s, mama shops were at their peak, with around 600 of them located at void decks around the country.

Despite how far back mama shops have been around, Mr Kumar’s shop is fairly new. He started his business 2 years ago after helping out with his uncle’s business. In the beginning, business was slow however it eventually picked up. Today, Mr Kumar considers his business to be “stable”.

Running this line of business is fairly relaxed, despite the long working hours. A typical day at work would start at 10:30 a.m. Mr Kumar wakes up at around 7:30 a.m. and starts his day with breakfast at home before making his way to the shop. It takes only a couple of minutes to reach the shop as he lives in the same block.

He starts preparing by unlocking the shutters and chains that were used to lock up the fridges and racks. He then proceeds to bring the racks that have been kept inside the store, outside to the shop front. The first thing he does is to check his stocks. He tops up the items that are running out, then checks his stocks again. Soft drinks, especially, are the number one item that always runs out first. He makes a list of other items that needs to be restocked, and makes orders for them.

After an hour of preparation, his shop is officially opened and ready to serve customers. Business is slow in the morning, though. He gets only a handful of customers at this period of the day and takes his time to restock goods. New stocks are always delivered in the morning and thus there are always bags of snacks and cardboard boxes sitting outside the shop. Mr Kumar is in no hurry to sort all of them at once. He has plenty of time to do that since there are not many customers at this hour.

READY TO SERVE: Mr Kumar does multiple jobs as the storeowner, which includes being the cashier, shelf stocker and cleaner. (PHOTO: Rusyda Aris)

As the day progresses on and afternoon comes, Mr Kumar can be found sitting on a chair in front of the cash register, talking to his friend on the phone. There are more customers who come to buy from his shop now. Business is picking up but it is still quite relaxed. Indian workers working at a nearby construction site come to buy drinks and grocery. Teenagers drop by as well to get drinks and snacks before walking to the playground opposite to hang out. When there are no customers, Mr Kumar goes outside to take the new stocks, and starts shelving them up. He stops doing that after a few minutes, going back to the cash register to rest and serve customers, then continues another round of stocking.

It may be a slow-paced job, but Mr Kumar enjoys it.

“I get to meet a lot of people with different characters,” said Mr Kumar. “I want to continue this business for ten more years, but I will have to see how first. If I can survive, I will continue, otherwise I won’t a have chance.”

Like Mr Kumar, many mama shop owners are facing the same dilemma of wanting to carry on their businesses, but are worried about the rising rental costs. Mama shops may have been around for many years, but the number of these shops have been dropping due to competition from mini marts and supermarkets.

Despite that, Mr Kumar hopes for the best for his business.