ARTICLE

Generation Y Hawkers

Rather than traditional local food like Fried Carrot Cake and Chicken Rice, young hawkers these
days are reviving the old trade with new offerings.

By Greta Lau and Jilliane Lee

The sound of traffic fills the streets as people dressed smartly in formal wear make their way to
their offices. In stark contrast, 34-year-old Gwern Khoo, who is dressed in a simple T-shirt and
shorts, is making his way to Amoy Street Food Centre to start his usual 14-hour day at work at
A Noodle Story.

For Khoo, his normal work day starts even before office hours. The shuttles roll open no later
than 7:30am and he, alongside his partner, 33-year-old Ben Tham, would rush to start kitchen
preparations immediately. They would finish preparations just in time for the lunch crowd at
11:15am, where a long queue awaits for the one and only Singapore-style ramen, a fusion
between Wanton Mee and Japanese ramen.

The duo would only have their first meal of the day when lunch service ends, which is between
3 to 5pm, before they get back to work to prepare for dinner service. When they finally clean up
and call it a day, night would have already fallen at 9pm.

It's physically and mentally draining. In addition to the long hours, the heat is also unbearable.
To cook at a consistently high level for 3 hours non-stop for lunch and 2 hours for dinner, we
need to be in tip-top condition Khoo said. Hence, we're mentally drained at the end of the day.
Work-life balance is another problem. I work on average 14 hours daily on a non-stop, full blast
ahead schedule. It can be very tiring at times.

Despite always having a strong passion for cooking and an interest in creating new dishes,
opening his own hawker stall was never Khoos dream when he was younger. In fact, he was
previously working in a completely different end of the F&B industry. Khoo worked as a chef in
fine-dining restaurants such as Waku Ghin and Iggys before opening A Noodle Story. (Applies
to the rest of the hawkers)

Hence, to test out his own unique culinary concepts and ideas, Khoo decided to start his
business at a hawker centre as it is the cheaper option. Fortunately, his creation was well-liked
from the moment he started out in 2013, and was awarded the Bib Gourmand, listed in the
Singapore Michelin Guide 2016.

Khoo feels that hawker centres in Singapore are a unique existence as they are a melting pot
of different cuisines at affordable prices. Also, he pointed out that with aging old hawkers
leaving the trade, some traditions and dishes will be lost. Hence, he hopes that more people in
the younger generation would join in the trade to keep the hawker flame alive.

Being a hawker is lots of hard work in a poor environment whereby you need to stand on your
feet for hours in a hot, cramped stall. Most people want the path of least resistance. Meaning
easy work and more money. Being a hawker is very tough work and only a tiny fraction of
hawkers manage to breakout and be famous said Khoo, That being said, there will still be
some hawker-preneurs willing to give it a try.

To Khoo, if you have the passion for cooking, the determination and the tenacity to overcome
challenges, you have the potential to run your own hawker stall.

Be prepared to work really hard. It's harder than you think and don't give up without a good
fight! Khoo advised.

Just like Khoo, young entrepreneurs in the new generation are also setting up their own hawker
stalls these days. Even though they are currently just a small handful, they all have the same
dream of starting their own businesses. There are some who set up stalls selling the traditional
hawker food, but some of these young entrepreneurs also come up with their own unique
products.

Manbeer Thomas, who is 34 this year, left his previous profession as a lawyer to pursue his
passion project - building a local craft beer brewery. To start off, the beer lover jumped at the
opportunity to sell his very own craft beer once a stall unit became available for rent at Maxwell
Food Centre. He shares the unit with a friend and runs his craft beer business only in the
evening.

3rd Culture Brewing Co, the name of his stall, started with only four taps but now it has 12 taps
offering different types of craft beers, of which the flavour changes on a weekly basis. Craft
beer, unlike normal beer like Tiger and Heineken, is made by small independent breweries
using hand-picked ingredients.

The brewers at craft breweries spend time and effort to produce great tasting beer. In short, a
craft beer is more about quality, Thomas said, I had my first proper craft beer, called Sierra
Nevada Pale Ale, when I travelled to California and I loved it It opened my eyes as to the
possibilities of beer.

Since he was a child, Thomas had never considered that he would ever run a stall at a hawker
centre. The former lawyer had initially wanted to take a break before joining another law firm,
but later decided that he wanted to run a business instead. Hence, Thomas decided to roll out
his craft beer business, first by starting up a stall to educate and expose people to craft beer.

I want to serve local craft beer with local food. What better way to do it then open up in a
hawker centre? Thomas said.
Thomas and his partners already have future expansion plans. They secured another stall at
Block 51 Old Airport Road Food Centre to sell craft beer. They also intend to open a local craft
brewery as he thinks that Singapore is an ideal place to have one. Once the brewery is
operational, they will serve craft beer at their stalls in Maxwell and Old Airport Road, and will
also distribute beer to other bars and restaurants.

But if craft beer isn't exactly your cup of tea/thing, why not come back during the day and try out
some coconut shakes?

However, 3rd Culture Brewing Cos shutters only open from 5:30pm. During the day, from 11am
to 4.30pm, 25-year-old Jezraim Carreon runs his own business, Coco Shake Bay, using the
same space. Started 9 months ago, Coco Shake Bay sells unique ice blended coconut shakes
such as Matcha Green Tea and Cookies and Cream, with the best-selling flavour being the
original coconut shake.

Formerly a bartender, Carreon has been working in the Food and Beverage (F&B) industry
since he was a young teenager. At the age of 16, Carreon knew he wanted to do something
business related, but not necessarily in the F&B industry. In fact, Coco Shake Bay only started
off because of an offer by a friend to launch his own business. Though his initial plan was
originally not to start off at Maxwell Hawker Centre, he decided to grasp the opportunity
presented to him to spark off the sale of his coconut shakes.

I would say I am fortunate that my previous experience in F&B compliments the business that i
am currently running. We definitely want to expand to malls and beaches, like Sentosa and
whatsoever. But right now, since the opportunity just arose, Im like Why not?, just try it. But
eventually if it works, were going to expand to malls, said Carreon.

Carreon however, still believes that starting out with a stall in a hawker centre is more
sustainable and cheaper as compared to opening his own caf or stall in a shopping centre.

Now the business is still new and unsaturated, there is still plenty of room for growth. The
hawker trade is simply a platform for us to experiment and test the market. Eventually we hope
to expand the business and possibly exit the hawker trade, said Carreon.

He believes that starting at a hawker stall acts as a stepping stone to franchise his business and
put his name out there. Eventually he hopes to expand this business enough to start opening
stall in shopping malls and earning sufficient income to retire. In about two to three years, he
believes that the stall may not even be at Maxwell Hawker Centre anymore.

We wouldve already expanded to other malls, and ideally what I want to happen is, at the end
of the day, this business turns out well, I franchise this business and hopefully sell it to someone
and start another business of my own all over again, said Carreon.
Both Thomas and Carreon feel that more young people should open stalls if they have the
passion and especially if they have a unique food and beverage concept in mind.

As long as people have a sound business plan, I definitely think more people should open
stalls, Thomas said, It can be quite a profitable and sustainable business.

Carreon believes that despite all the challenges he faced while running a hawker stall, such as
constantly coming up with new concepts and competing with fellow hawkers, all one needs is
the determination to overcome them.

Its really not very easy, said Carreon, You just have to stay passionate and stay driven.

Hello, Im just going to leave my feedback here. General flow of article is okay except that
portion that has a small jump. Greta did a survey right? Maybe can use some stats from the
survey inside the article? I feel like its very credible so in between maybe you can talk more
about how it links together. Other than the fact that theyre all local hawkers, are they all having
a hard time because of no support etc.? Maybe you can write a conclusion to conclude the
article. Generation Y hawkers. What is this common thing that ties them up as Generation Y
hawkers and makes them special? Let me know if you need help :) - Cass

Basically flow needs to be better, must have better transition, like for example, What is common
between the interviewees, is it motivations? Or other stuff?

FOR TRANSITIONS BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS

For so and so, he too shared similar motivations with so and so.
For so and so, his reason for starting this stall was blah blah blah.