In the heart of Subang Jaya, a grocery shop tackles poverty in a novel way.
SUBANG JAYA, May 3: The kedai runcit (grocery mart) looks like any other business operating on a row of shophouses. Orange pillars and a canary-hued signage outside contrast against the plain white interior walls. Posters are taped at the entrance, shelves filled with goods in multicolored packaging, and a lone employee works the cash register.
“Don’t ask me,” the cashier, Matthew, responds shyly, when asked for an interview. “I don’t do much.”
Like Matthew, CAREmart appears quiet and inconspicuous. Yet the shop is the face of a unique approach in addressing poverty. Director Tan Chin Chin dives into the community project the moment she steps into the shop.
“We visit and interview families. Once accepted, they are given subsidy cards that last for six months. With the card, they can purchase essential goods at a 30% discount…” She cites rice, sugar, and soap detergent as examples of essentials.
Sometimes, when the family is in dire circumstances, items will be given for free. “We see where we can help,” Tan smiles.
CAREmart: Direct in its message
A 30% discount may seem like a small number, but in point of fact it makes a lot of difference.
“Take sugar,” Tan says. “Sugar is RM2.10. Even the hypermarket is selling at RM2.10, because it’s a controlled item. You minus 30% off RM2.10, that’s minus almost 70sen.”
But how does CAREmart cover the cost?
“When a normal customer comes, he buys at the stated price. All profits will then go into subsidizing the goods,” Tan explains.
A delivery truck stops outside. Matthew meets the driver hauling cases of groceries in. As the global economy deals with an oil crisis – depleting reserves and increasing price, especially in the wake of recent Middle East crises – transportation costs and prices of goods are affected. Consequently, local cost of living is on the rise. Tan quotes the New Straits Times report that 40% of Malaysians earn less than RM1500 a month.
“I don’t know how people can survive… but there are many people in that category,” Tan says. “And even if you’re earning more, your purchasing power is getting less and less.” Her own family of three has monthly expenses of “more than RM1500 multiple times.”
Fuel prices in Malaysia on the increase
But CAREmart does not deal with poverty by subsidies alone. The team behind the project also partners with Malaysian Care in facilitating financial literacy classes for the poor. There are two stages to the classes. In the first stage, people learn basic financial knowledge. After that they have the option of moving to the second stage where they learn how to run small businesses.
Tan tells of a woman who, after attending the classes for one year, decided to open a fruit stall. The woman has since been able to open a savings account for each of her children, and puts RM80 into their accounts each month. Her husband, a former drug addict, also started his own business of selling putu mayam (string hoppers). The family is no longer in debt.
There’s also the story of a lady who managed to redeem her pawned jewelry after going through the classes. The solution to poverty is not an unsolvable mathematical equation. “Sometimes it’s through setting a new business, but for many of [the poor], it’s just changing their spending habits,” Tan notes.
Tan: Support by buying groceries
I muse about how most charity groups organize visits to hand out groceries directly. I ask Tan why CAREmart doesn’t do the same. Tan acknowledges the value of that approach, “If people actually go and give themselves, it’d be great. The thing is… most people don’t know where the poor families are. Even for me, I didn’t know where the squatter areas in Subang Jaya were.”
Knowing the families makes for an advantage. The CAREmart team visits families regularly to check up on their progress and help accordingly. But Tan emphasizes that poverty is not an issue just for exclusive groups. It’s something in which everyone should be involved, and she hopes that CAREmart is an avenue to encourage that.
“If we do things systematically, we can conquer area by area… All these things need to be done… where somebody takes the lead and other people follow.”
My friend and I purchase a few items from the shop in support. Matthew, the cashier, points to a delivered case of canned drinks. Referring to the cost, he tells Tan, “This one has gone up already.”
“What?”
The impact of the price registers in her mind. “Okay la,” she finally says with resignation.
As we leave the cool comfort of the shop, it strikes me that the rising cost of living and its effects is not just a theory in Tan’s mind. It is a reality, as real as the sweltering heat of that afternoon’s midday sun.
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