'Lifestyle'

Things under 'Lifestyle' category cost much more. Once upon a time, bakery shops in heartland sold - bread. I recalled a red bean bun costing about 30 cents. Then came BreadTalk which sells 'Lifestyle' bread, -costing double.  Sadly, 'lifestyle' bread has penetrated to all HDB heartland bakeries. We have no choice but to consume lifestyle products and pay more if we still want to eat bread.

This is the same for pets.  Back during my Pre-U days (which is termed JC now) a rabbit cost $6. During my working days, it cost about $35 and a white mice $3.  Now, a pedigree rabbit in HDB pet shop costs about $200. They no longer sell mice but pedigree hamsters.  May be there is no pedigree mice, so it is not profitable to sell them. Only pedigree animals are sold nowadays in pet shops all over the island....be it a hamster, guinea pig, rabbit......cat and dog.

In the past, those who wanted 'lifestyle' pet will go for Chinchilla, pedigree dog and cat.  But society has changed, every thing is about 'brand'. This extend even to pets - they must carry a 'name' behind them to inflate profit margin for the seller and boost the ego of the buyer.

There are parents who do not blink an eye to get a $4000 pure breed pup for their kids.  Then when the doggie is naughty, they 'give it away'.  SPCA is loaded with abandon pedigree pets due to change in social value for the worst. To some, a pet is just a form of entertaining toy to be discarded when they are tired of it.