Small Mom-and-Pop vs. Big Franchise - A Bubble Milk Tea Shop Case
I went to have a bubbled milk tea after lunch yesterday. I had an opportunity talking to a small mom-and-pop bubble tea shop owner and the conversation was very interesting. She owned a local Singapore bubble tea shop in the HDB heartland and has been running it for over 10 years at the same location. Over the time, her business affected a lot due to some reasons. One of them is the newly operated MRT station. She claimed that she used to see many students from a nearby secondary school patronize her premise last time, but once a new MRT station operated with new popular franchise bubble tea kiosk open there, she hardly sees students from that same school anymore. Based on my observation, I totally agreed with her. 5 years ago when I was working nearby, my colleagues and me used to drink at her bubble tea shop during lunch break, and we used to see a lot of secondary school students hanging around the void deck in front of the shop. But now, it seems to be a little quiet. Th...