Lower income families with CHAS blue cards will be receiving a 3% discount every Thursday at NTUC FairPrice stores until the end of 2021.
This discount is applicable at all 149 FairPrice stores, including FairPrice Finest outlets and FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets, as well as FairPrice on Wheels and all 84 Unity pharmacies.
To receive the discount, shoppers must present their CHAS Blue cards at cashier counters or select the CHAS Blue discount option at self-checkout counters. The discount is subject to a cap of S$200 per transaction per day, which is a maximum of S$6 off.
This discount scheme was launched in the hopes of benefitting lower income families who have been impacted by Covid-19. Through the scheme, they can save more on groceries and their daily needs. This new discount scheme will cost the supermarket chain an estimated $500,000.
FairPrice also currently has Pioneer Generation, Merdeka Generation and senior discount schemes on various days of the week. These schemes cost the supermarket chain more than S$10 million this year.
FairPrice’s mission of moderating the costs of living
NTUC FairPrice is often on the receiving end of comments online that their products are not the cheapest around. However, it has never claimed to be the cheapest on the market, as its role is to regulate prices. This means that it prevents private supermarkets (like Giant, Cold Storage and Sheng Siong etc) from raising prices recklessly.
In normal times, this may not seem like a big deal. However, Covid-19 has shown us firsthand how companies could profiteer quickly from scarce goods if we are not careful. Remember when face masks were scarce and going for $50/box on Carousell? That’s an example of what could happen if we did not have a benchmark controlling the prices of goods. Although FairPrice does not offer the cheapest price for all products in the market, it serves as a gauge for other supermarkets to price their products. This prevents prices from skyrocketing when the market is “good”.
FairPrice also exercised a price freeze on 100 of its house brand products from March 2019 till Dec 2020. This initiative was aimed at helping households save on their grocery needs during the economic downturn.
Profits go back to the community through donations
Netizens who criticise FairPrice for its profits also forget that these profits do not belong to any individual, since they go back to the community through donations. In fact, the Fairprice Foundation has been consistently donating millions of dollars to help lower-income Singaporeans even prior to Covid-19.
Conversely, private supermarkets get to keep their profits as they are a private entity. So, the next time you choose to shop with FairPrice, do know that you are giving back to the Singapore community.
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