and the salesgirl goes....

"one doulah, one doulah!"
"one doulah, one doulah!"

the china girl at the Qbread outlet at eunos mrt shouts outside the store.

i saw her again today. or maybe it's another girl, but they sure sound the same. "one doulah. one doulah!"

today i arrived home early. right after school. right after handing in my HMT assignment, that has caused me many nights and days of rest and play.

i alighted 154, right in front of a mr bean store. and mr bean himself was beaming at me.

i always desired to get a pancake from there. cheese, kaya, chocolate, tuna.. mmmm...

today, i walked into the store. a few others went in at the same time. i stood in front of the glass that intervened between me and those soft steamy pancakes.

there, printed on a piece of laminated paper, scotch-taped to that glass, was:

cheese $ 1.10
red bean $ 1.00
chocolate $ 1.10
blueberry $ 1.10
kaya $ 1.00
peanut $ 1.00
tuna $ 1.20 (prices were rougly like that, i just anyhow match their relative prices.)

inflation? i vaguely remember there used to be 90cents. correct me if i'm wrong.

i left.

there was more variety at the 'one doulah' breadshop.

i used to like the bread from there. i love bread.
i've bought bread from there more than often since it charged its bread and cakes at a dollar.

it's a growing trend now isn't it? with bread shops everywhere applying the $1 gimmick.

if was a astounding feeling entering Qbread. the entire store was packed neatly with buns and bread and cakes, trays all fully filled.

i noticed something different though today. everything was much smaller. this does not help that i already knew they were compromising on their quality because their bread had lesser toppings for the past few months. and now they compromise on quantity too??

i ended up buying 2. as usual. despite the fact i was trying to cut my spendings and refusing to pay $1.10 for the pancake.

the $1 certainly works in inducing consumers to buy more than 1 product.

walking back, munching my almond custard pie which turned out to be banana walnut, i was intrigued by my logics that Qbread's profit to cost ratio would probably increase.

from my own observation, the number of consumers have increased. i always have to queue for payment.

people will not buy just one. i have to buy 2 now that it is $1. i used to be able to buy just 1.

but how much are consumers actually saving? 10, 20, 50 cents?

on the surface, that's what Qbread wants us to think.

but most certainly, and with today's shrink in size, it's definitely that Qbread's cost per bun is lower. therefore they will earn equal, if not more profits per bun. and since consumers with inherent kiasu-ness buy more than they would if at normal prices, who's not to agree that Qbread will triumph in this economic recession?

mr bean on the other hand have kept their sizes of their pancakes constant (my own assumption). though i thought the bean shaped tarts did look a tint larger. validation for their inflated prices?