It's not a blackout, so why are 'patrons eating in the dark' at this Bukit Merah food centre?

He thought it was a power failure at first.

Stomper Chong could not believe that people were dining in the dark at the ABC Brickworks Food Centre in Jalan Bukit Merah.

He then learnt from one of the hawkers there the reason why.

"During a weekday, I passed by the very popular hawker centre before 10pm and many stalls were closed and the lights were mostly off," recounted the Stomper. "I thought it could be a power shortage."

"I went back on Saturday night (Dec 17). I was there after 8pm and unbelievably, I saw many patrons eating in the dark.

"The dessert stall owner said this was due to energy-saving lights, which made people think the hawker centre was not open, which has badly affected business. Is this the same in other hawker centres too?"

The ABC Brickworks Market and Food Centre is managed and maintained by the Tanjong Pagar Town Council.

In response to a Stomp query, the town council said: "The LED lights installed at the ABC Brickworks Food Centre are standardised across all markets and hawker centres using similar fittings.

"We will work closely with the Hawker Association and look into this feedback."

The Stomper said: "The stall owners have already suffered a lot during the Covid period. I hope their operating environment won’t be so challenging."