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Rararara.

Since I started opening up Plantsomecat’s merchandises (the 2021 planner to be exact), I have been marking the price as ‘Pay as You Wish’. Across the feedbacks and enquiries I received, I realised that this pricing method is not broadly known yet, or rather people have yet used to this unique way of understanding on how much the item is worth.

 

I got to know this pricing strategy when I was in secondary school. There was once I watched a TV travel programme, we were brought by the host to a vegetarian restaurant called “Lentil As Anything” (“Lentil”) based Melbourne, Australia. It is a vegetarian buffet-like restaurant where you serve yourself how much food as you like. If you are based in South-East Asia, in particular Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, you may know it as ‘Za Cai Fan/Cai Fan’ for Chinese food and ‘Nasi Padang/Nasi Campur’ for Malay/Indonesian food. The dishes are served in metal trays, usually with carbohydrates (rice) being the base and you can add whatever dishes you like, either by yourself or by the crew, depending on the restaurant’s way of serving.

 

I was fascinated by the way Lentil runs its pricing strategy. At a corner at the exit/entrance, it would put up the restaurant’s monthly financial statement showing the costs, expenditure, overheads, revenue which runs down to whether it is making a profit or loss at the month prior.

 

If you happened to Google the term ‘Pay as You Wish’, or you would have rather landed on Wikipedia: ‘Pay what you want’, you would see this being defined as “a pricing strategy where buyers pay their desired amount for a given commodity”, which is also referred to as “value-for-value model”. So, what does that mean?

 

‘Pay as You Wish’ simply means you can pay whatever you want. As suggested by Wikipedia, this amount can sometimes include zero. No doubt the first impression for people, including me, would give it a value by way of monetary measurement i.e. in dollar sense, but I have been looking forward to seeing some other way of ‘payment’. Yes, we need money to survive. Yes, I spend money on creating the items and it would be rather ridiculous if I were to expect some other payment of method. That said, I was wondering if someone would offer me a payment of ‘respect’, a payment by ‘recommending friends to Plantsomecat’s content’, a payment by way of ‘sharing of knowledge’, or even to exchange my item for a donation to charity. I know, it sounds peculiar, even me myself would hesitate to offer someone so. But if we returned to the barter-trade system, that is exactly how it works.

 

Back to reality, I still need money to get these things running. A few friends had recently asked me, why am I doing this ‘Pay as You Wish’. Although they did not expressly ask so, I understand where they are coming from – Am I making profit out of this?

 

“I don’t do this for money”, this has always been my answer. Then what?

 

It has always been in my bucket list to create something for Plantsomecat. Though the idea has been there for few years, and only till very recently I started taking action. I take this opportunity to thank my beloved friends, Kelvyn, Chui Sheng and Ben Neo, for showing me some lights and with the little sparks they gave, I finally have the courage and drive to get things started.

 

As I said, my contention is never to make a fortune out of it. I’d rather be happier when people enjoy my contents, which are some sharing of the bitter and sweet I experienced in life. It may be a seem-to-be-meaningless post to you, some little things, but it could be a resonance to someone who happened to come across the same thing as I am. And those, are the little things that I am proud of (Yes, Little Things by One Direction).

 

Speaking of my contents, a friend of mine, who had been following ever since Plansomecat started, told me that how my contents have changed. She told me that she really enjoyed the sorrow-ish vibe of the contents I created way back, at least 3 – 4 years ago, and few weeks ago was the very first time I was told something to that sort. While years back, another friend told me that she always feels gloomy-emo vibe around me, it isn’t a compliment nor something bad. When the feedbacks got me into pondering, I felt never been happier – what I thought doesn’t matter actually matters. I always thought that people are just pressing the ‘like’ button for the sake of pressing it. Little did you know the thought process I have to go through.

 

Getting onto a landing, I really appreciate the feedbacks I received thus far. These really got me moving, to have something being the sign of time, as well as a resonance for you.