People are selling the viral S$19.90 Scotch Brite EZ-Link charm on Carousell for double the price

A user on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu posted a video of herself copping the charm at Sengkang MRT a week ago, and was quickly bombarded with comments asking for the exact location of the machine. (FYI: It's near the Compass One mall entrance, but chances are you'll be greeted with a sold-out sign.)
It also looks like the charm isn't just popular among locals – the original poster even received a request from a couple of netizens based overseas, asking if she can help buy it for them.
"It does not even come with any top-up value, do Singaporeans really love cleaning that much?" joked one netizen. Another quipped: "An actual cleaning sponge costs less than that."
However, if the comments on EZ-Link's Instagram page are of any indication, people are more than willing to part with S$19.90 if it means owning the unique charm.
Many are asking for a restock, but according to EZ-Link Singapore's reply, they "do not have information on any restocks", and have recommended that interested buyers keep a lookout on their social media pages for updates instead.
Listings of the sponge charm have also popped up on Carousell, with people selling them for an average of S$30 per piece.
The most expensive listing has the "limited edition" charm going for S$49.90 – more than double the retail price.
Speaking to 8days.sg, one Singaporean, who has been desperately looking for the charm, said: "I agree that S$19 is expensive, but it's so cute I don't mind paying for it. Comments on TikTok say it's sold out everywhere, I went to the vending machine at Chinatown and it was no longer available as well."
When asked if she would consider buying it from Carousell instead, she immediately replied: "No! They're unethical to be reselling it at such a price."

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Vogue Singapore

2 hours ago

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Playwright Chong An Ong and director Timothy Koh investigate the meaning of home in Singapore, Michigan

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I think that's just the magic of what happens when actors come into the space with us. That's always when I'm at my most excited, and when I have the most fun. Chong An, this is your first play. What has it been like getting to stage it? Chong An: It's like a pinch myself moment in a dream. It's really surreal and full-circle, as one of the first experiences that got me interested in theatre was Pangdemonium's Next to Normal production in 2013. I'm aware that they've done new original works before, but it's always been with really established writers and theatre professionals. To be in that company now is daunting, but also really exciting. I'm honoured to be a part of the New Works Lab program in particular, and I look forward to seeing more works come from other Singaporean writers as part of it. What inspired you to write Singapore, Michigan? C: I started writing this play in the winter of 2020, as part of an undergraduate writing workshop at the University of Chicago. I was in a similar place as the characters—a college senior about to graduate and come back home to serve my government scholarship. And I was thinking a lot about the same questions. What do I want to do with my future? How has four years of college in a foreign country shaped me, as opposed to the person I was before that? I think, in Singapore, oftentimes, there's this almost ritualistic invocation of the idea of home. After four years of talking to both my Singaporean and non-Singaporean friends, I was having these epiphanies about the concept of home that I wouldn't otherwise have had if I'd stayed in Singapore. It was a transitional period of my life where a lot of these questions were boiling, and it honestly almost felt like I had no choice but to write it, to process a lot of the emotions that I was going through. The play follows three friends who get snowed in whilst on a mission to find the ghost town of Singapore, Michigan. Courtesy of Pangdemonium Has the play evolved since you first started writing it in 2020? C: For sure. Writers will often say that playwriting itself is a very lonely endeavour, but the exciting part of the experience is when the play meets other people. Having conversations with the Pangdemonium team, receiving feedback from a wider audience at the developmental platform at SIFA, and now having the actors in the room—I get to learn new things about the play and expand it beyond what was a very personal piece that I had written for myself. Incorporating all these different experiences and perspectives of home really enriches the dramatic potential of the piece. So a lot has evolved, not just from when the play first met Pangdemonium, but from when I first wrote it five years ago by myself in a college basement classroom in Chicago. Has writing this play helped you to find some of the answers to the questions you were asking? C: For me, rather than answers, it's more about finding other people who feel similar, and discovering community and companionship through the power of art. That was a conversation I had with Tim as well—about having a more open-ended exploration of the play, and being okay to sit in the ambiguity of it. 'In Singapore, oftentimes, there's this almost ritualistic invocation of the idea of home' Timothy, as a director, what draws you to the plays that you choose to work on—and why this play in particular? T: I've been quite known in the scene for doing classic or classic-adjacent work. That is a big part of my desire to work in theatre, and that will always be there, but what I've also been pushing for in the last couple years is new plays and new young playwrights, because there is nothing more thrilling than being able to create something entirely new. That said, I think that there is a very strong through line in all the plays I choose to do, which is that they all concern intelligent, articulate characters who are faced with very difficult decisions. I like exploring the psychological aspect of characters, and I think this is true both for my classic work and for new plays. But with this piece, I was certainly drawn to it because the characters are so richly drawn and so complex that we learn new things about them every day, and I think that's what makes it fun. Was there an aspect of the play that you were most excited to tackle in the rehearsal room? T: It's no secret that there is snow in this play, and that's something I've been quite excited to play with. Obviously, we're not getting real snow on stage, but when you come see the show, you'll see how we tackled it. 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T: I'm lucky that this is my day job [laughs]. Every piece presents different kinds of struggles, but weirdly enough, I actually think this has been going quite smoothly. Nothing particular comes to mind. C: I do think there was a degree of trepidation before coming into the rehearsal room, right? There were moments right before and right after we had the actors come in that I personally felt a bit without a safety net. And then afterwards, it was like, 'Oh, this is good. There's a lot to explore here. We're ready for the actors to attack it'. What has that been like—seeing the actors bring your words to life? C: It's really surreal. Words fail to describe that kind of feeling. What I will say is, as a playwright, the ideal is always to be able to create something that is flexible enough to fit different interpretations. That was something that I wanted the text to have. I wanted room for the actors to play and discover, so it's very heartening to see that validated. There is space for other collaborators to come in and offer their own additions, which is the magic thing that you always want in the theatre. T: And we have such intelligent performers in Ching Shu Yi, Shrey Bhargava and Zane Haney. Sometimes I feel the actors might know the characters in more intimate ways than we do, because they offer up interpretations of texts that we don't think about, and we're like, 'Whoa, okay, yeah, that makes so much sense'. I think that is the most enlightening part about the rehearsal process. 'As a playwright, the ideal is always to be able to create something that is flexible enough to fit different interpretations' Lastly, what are you most excited for audiences to see with this play? T: I'm excited for the audience to be challenged. I really like theatre that challenges audiences to think more deeply about situations or people or issues in a way that perhaps they have not thought of before. I would consider this play successful if it raises difficult questions for audiences, while still offering a fun and enjoyable theatrical experience. But I think at the heart of it, I really want the audiences to investigate what home means. What does it mean to belong, and how do you think about home when you're not there? C: When I wrote this play, I included a lot of twists and turns—kind of like the Alfred Hitchcock theory of drama being such that there is a bomb under the table. The audience knows it's there, but they don't know when it's going to go off. We've really amped up those twists and turns in the rehearsal room. Yes, I think it's important that the play explores important themes and provokes important reflections, but I'm also excited to see the audience react to the roller coaster ride that I hope we're creating for them. I feel like it would be very gratifying to see the different energy that each new audience will bring every night. 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Straits Times

10 hours ago

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Straits Times

13 hours ago

• Straits Times

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