Will tingkat services continue after covid settles down?

Last year in April, when Singapore (together with the rest of the world) was going through a tough time, tingkat services saw a revival as households were forced to dine at home during our country’s partial lockdown.

Tingkat, which is a cylindrical multi-layered tin cans that hold food, is also a service that was invented for working mothers who were unable to get home in time from work to cook for their families.

During our partial lockdown, while many resorted to food delivery services from GrabFood as well as Food Panda, tingkat services saw a rise in sales. In fact, there were reports of tingkat sales increasing by several folds during the height of the pandemic.

But covid may be settling down soon

However, will the interest in this ‘home cooked’ food service come to a halt once the pandemic settles down?

Government has started increasing the number of pax for dining out again – rising from 2 back to 5, albeit from the same household. This will prove to be a move that will highly benefit brick and mortar shops and it rightfully should, since these are the people of Singapore who were affected the most by the pandemic.

But how will it be for tingkat services? For one, its convenience and quality of food cannot be discounted. Secondly, these are potentially healthier foods compared to the ones people order from GrabFood and Food Panda, and arguably from the brick and mortar stores as well. Thirdly, even with covid settling down, not everyone is ready to start heading out and mixing around in the crowd again.

The love for tingkat may continue

This could well mean that tingkat services may continue to prosper. Mr Joseph Lee, 34 years of age, who works from home now due to the pandemic, says that having the tingkat service is a great way for him and his family to deal with the headache of thinking what to eat everyday. And that seems to be the magic for others too.

Many food catering companies offer different menu of halal tingkat services just to suit your palate. And depending on what you choose, prices will vary. As a benchmark, catering companies usually charge approximate $50 for 3 pax for 20 days worth of food. They have a variation of prices depending on the number of pax as well as days. Hence, not only is it convenient, tingkat services are very customisable and fuss free.

This may be a very attractive reason as to why tingkat services may not come to a complete halt even when covid starts settling down. Subscriptions may drop, but it’ll continue to be steady stream for the next year or so.

In the case of Bayfront Catering Services, the management is quite confident of the popularity of tingkat in Singapore, thanks to the steady stream of income brought about from the service. If there is a drop in subscription numbers, it’ll probbably be due to the “quality of the food” rather than due to the pandemic settling down.