Higher rentals for food stalls

Dear Mr. Tan,
I have come across two incidents of high rentals for food stalls. Apparently, this is rampant and nothing was done about it.

Case 1. My friend rented a stall in a primary school, but later found out the stall was actually sub-let from the main stall holder who knows nothing about food business. This person bid for stalls island-wide and sub-let them to the genuine hawkers. How can the hawker sell quality cheap food to students if there is a middle man profiteering from this system? The school administration should ensure the authencity of the bidder and ensure integrity in their business administration? Eventually my friend decided to give up the stall.

Case 2. Another  stall holder told me that the rent from the middle man was so high, after a change of landlord, that he had to give up the stall.

It seems that the Jurong Town Corporation is giving up its industrial estates to private developers and landlords. The privatised developers are increasing their rental and the stall holders are being squeezed by the rising food prices and rising rental. The hawkers, who have low education, cannot forsee the privatisation changes coming, and will lose out to public listed food courts like Kopitiam and Banquet. In time, there will be no more sole proprietorships or enterprising business, but everyone has to work for big enterprise. This is totally suppressing small enterprises in Singapore.

REPLY
I agree with your views. We have a bad system in Singapore.