COFFEESHOP patrons grumbling about the rising cost of living may be pleased to know that prices of the hot cup of coffee they are sipping have largely stayed the same since February. The average price of kopi and teh - local coffee or tea with condensed milk - has held steady at 80 cents for the past three months, while a canned drink of green tea, Coke or Pepsi costs about $1.20. These figures come from the Consumers Association of Singapore's (Case) second beverage price survey released on Tuesday. The consumer watchdog surveyed 151 drink stalls islandwide between end March and early April. The first survey in February only measured the price of a cup of kopi, teh, and a can of Pepsi or Coke. Case found that since then, fewer than 10 per cent or eight drink vendors had raised kopi and teh prices by 10 cents. Four other stalls lowered prices by the same amount. For Pepsi and Coke, nine stalls upped prices by 10 cents, while three others lowered prices by 10 to 20 cents. In its second survey, Case checked the prices of a wider range of drinks including regular cans of chrysanthemum tea, soya bean drink and H20. Besides prices, Case also looked at whether vendors displayed prices of their beverages clearly. It found that over half of the vendors did not display prices upfront - 72 did not put up beverage prices prominently and 18 displayed only the prices of kopi and teh. Among those who showed prices, two charged about 10 to 20 cents more than what was stated. Labels: tiffany
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