Smart consumer: Mahendran comparing cooking oil prices at a supermarket in George Town. — ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: With the spiralling price of cooking oil, many are using less of it.
Taxi driver M. Mahendran, 60, said his wife was trying her best to “stretch” the 5kg cooking oil bottle to last for a month.
He said he had to fork out RM44.50 for it now, compared to RM29 last month.
“The price difference is drastic but we are helpless. We use a lot of oil because my wife cooks for the five of us in the family.
“But I guess using less oil is good for our health,” said Mahendran, who was seen comparing prices of bottled cooking oil at a supermarket here.
Housewife Jasmin Ng, 38, said she stopped deep frying chicken and French fries for her children since the subsidy was removed for bottled cooking oil last month.
“I am careful to not use oil unless necessary as there are four of us to cook for. It is unhealthy to reuse the oil, so now we go healthy by using less oil, too,” she added.
Gama Supermarket and Departmental Store assistant general manager Neoh Kean Bin said: “There is ample supply of bottled cooking oil since the prices increased.
“Before the price hike, we had to keep restocking several times but now there is adequate supply.”
Sales, he said, had slowed down for bottled cooking oil but not for packet oil, with each family restricted to three packets.
“We do not bring out all our daily supply of packet cooking oil. We schedule it with one batch released in the morning and then two or three more throughout the day. This way there is enough for all and it is better spread out,” he added.
For oil used in prayer lamps, prayer paraphernalia shop owner Kenny Lim said the price had gone up by a nominal sum compared to cooking oil.
He said there were two types of prayer oil, one being paraffin oil which is now priced at RM16 compared to RM13.50 before.
“The price for another type of oil which we are selling, lower-grade cooking oil, has also shot up by a few ringgit.
“What is shocking is that eight years ago, a 2kg bottled oil was only priced RM6 and now it is RM16. “But I would not encourage it to be used for cooking,” he said, adding that many of his regulars still came to buy the oil.
