The New Paper - 16 Mar 2003

The jobless get new push(cart) in career CDC helps unemployed pick up retailing

By Florence Tan

THESE are lean times, when every idea is worth a shot.

And the Northeast Community Development Council (CDC) has one that seems to be a hit.

It is training jobless people and helping them to take up retailing.

And these colourful pushcarts outside Freshmart, a Tampines Street 81 wet market, are part of the scheme.

West Management Services Pte Ltd, which manages Freshmart, spent $35,000 to make the pushcarts.

Said Ms Imelda Teo, 27, the company's marketing and communications manager: 'We used to have pasar malam stalls but the retailers had to keep moving their goods back and forth.

'Now, they have proper storage space.'

Since the opening on Mar 1, all the 10 carts have been taken up.

The retailers sell a variety of items - clothes, shoes, food and toys.

Mr Simon Goh, 36, who sells shoes, rented the cart for $1,000 a month. The rent for a stall in the wet market is $3,000 a month.


'I used to rent the space outside HDB shops. It's the first time I'm renting a pushcart and I'm trying it out for a month,' said Mr Goh in Mandarin.

'It's very crowded in the morning as many housewives do their shopping but it gets quiet later in the day.'

It's too early for him to say how much he can make.

After trying it out for the first month, the stallholder can opt to sign a three-month lease.

Half of the pushcarts are used to help the retrenched and unemployed.

Mr Eric Foo, 37, who runs a tidbits and toys pushcart, is one of them. He left his job as an Internet cafe assistant when it was on the verge of closing down.

He holds a diploma in product design but finds it hard to get a job.

'Most of the products are not developed here, and hence we're not in demand compared with graphic designers,' said Mr Foo.

He approached the Northeast CDC and was accepted for its Retail Incubator Programme. (See report, right.)

'My ambition was to set up a business which sells fun stuff,' said Mr Foo, who is still single.

He found the retail training 'very good'. He learnt sales, marketing and accounting skills from it.

'I can also apply my packaging design skills to the retail business,' he said.

Mr Foo is a hit among kids. Madam Murni Bte Slamat, a housewife, said her kids always tell her that they want to go to the uncle's shop and buy something: 'They buy tidbits from him every day because he is very nice and friendly.'

She added that the pushcarts provide more variety: 'The goods are not expensive. We don't have to go anywhere and can just shop after going to the market.'


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RENT-FREE SHOP SPACE

HALF the profits of Freshmart go to the Tampines West CCC Bursary and Welfare Funds, said Ms Teo.

The company, operated by grassroot leaders from the Merchants' Association, makes up to $300,000 a year.

It has also been providing rent-free shop space for two months to each participant from the Northeast CDC's Retail Incubator Programme, which was started last October.

Ms Norlina Saliman, 28, senior manager of Northeast CDC, said applicants have to go through a screening process.

'We look at their financial background and how long they have been unemployed. They also have to show their commitment and interest,' she said.


The trainees attended a free five-day course run by the Retail Promotion Centre.

'We helped them get suppliers to provide goods on a consignment basis. There is also a weekly tutorial which evaluates their sales and performance,' said Ms Saliman.

Said a stall-holder in the market, Madam Cheminie Tan, 41, who was retrenched after working for 13 years as a secretary: 'It was completely new to me as I didn't know what retailing was about. It is like a second career.'



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