do we have choices?

i do not know whether other consumers have had our experience when eating out during the current holiday season but this is our experience today.

while in-between the traditional visitation to our relatives' homes, we stopped by to have our lunch at the neighbourhood coffee shop.

perhaps or perhaps not surprisingly, we had to pay a 'surcharge' levied on our drinks and fish ball noodles (not many stalls were opened for business).

what was the surchage?

for our drinks:

a. kopi-o kosong for myself: $1.00 with a surchage of $0.30
b. kopi-o for my wife: $1.10 with a similar surchage of $0.30
c. coke for our son: $1.60 with a surchage of $0.30

so, on a 'normal' day, we would have paid just $2.70 but because it was during the lunar new year holidays, we coughed out $3.70.

for our 3 bowls of fish ball noodles, we paid a total of $10.50 with a total surchage of $1.50. and i could not help but took notice that the noodles and fish balls in the bowl were lesser than usual.

my comments:

evidentaly, i may not have the usual choices which i can exercise outside of the lunar new year holidays and therefore, i should accept paying the 'surchages' if i want to fill my tummy, right?

but my point is, in terms of the hundreds of insurance products from our 15 life insurers here, there are obviously a wider range of choices available to the consumer and i can still see from the life insurance association of singapore's website that more than half of new business taken up is through the tied agency channel.

to me, this is both vexing and puzzling as the consumer here is well known in scouting or hunting for the best possible bargains through it/pc shows, sales, post christmas sales, post lunar new year sales, etc.

and when it comes to insurance, i have always championed the consumers' interests and i do not see why anyone should even pay a cent more for taking up any insurance product especially so when pricing may be the key difference between insurers.