When you type mart near me at 11pm, the closest dot on the map is almost never the cheapest place to buy that bag of chips. A 24-hour convenience store like 7-Eleven or Cheers is built for speed, and you pay for it: a snack that costs about S$1.50 at Sheng Siong can run S$2.20 to S$2.80 at the corner store, a markup of roughly 20% to 40% on the same product. The fix is knowing which mart sits closest to you and what it is actually good at. Below is a Singapore mart map sorted by what saves you money, the snack prices to expect in 2026, and the CDC voucher move that quietly knocks S$250 off your grocery year.
Marts in Singapore fall into three pricing tiers, and the map app does not tell you which tier you are tapping. The corner convenience store wins on distance and hours but loses on price. The full supermarket wins on price but may be a 10-minute walk further. The specialty mart sits in the middle and trades on products you cannot get elsewhere.
The gap is real money. Convenience stores carry smaller pack sizes and price for the 1am emergency, not the weekly shop. FairPrice Group runs over 180 Cheers and FairPrice Xpress outlets that stay open around the clock, and they are genuinely everywhere, but the per-item price reflects that reach. If you are buying more than one or two things, the few extra minutes to a proper supermarket pay for themselves.
Every price here already includes the 9% GST that has applied since January 2024, so the shelf tag is what you pay. Use our monthly budget calculator to see how a S$0.70 snack markup, repeated four nights a week, adds up to about S$145 a year you could keep.
If price is the only thing you care about, the value supermarkets beat every convenience store. Sheng Siong calls itself one of the cheapest chains in Singapore and runs around 75 stores as of December 2025, several of them 24-hour, with more than 1,750 house-brand products built specifically to undercut name brands. Giant and FairPrice round out the mainstream value tier with weekly promotions and bulk packs.
The table below compares the same kind of buy across the mart types so you can see where the money goes. Prices are typical 2026 shelf figures and move with promotions, so treat them as 'around' guides rather than fixed quotes.
| Mart type | Examples | Typical snack price | 24-hour? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value supermarket | Sheng Siong, Giant, FairPrice Xtra | From ~S$1.50 a packet | Some outlets | Cheapest weekly shop, house brands |
| Convenience store | 7-Eleven, Cheers, FairPrice Xpress | ~S$2.20 to S$2.80 | Yes, almost all | Late-night top-ups, single items |
| China-sourced mart | Scarlett Supermarket | From ~S$1 a packet | Yes, most outlets | Cheap instant noodles, drinks, snacks |
| Japanese mart | Don Don Donki | Snacks from ~S$1.50 | Yes, flagship outlets | Japanese snacks, ready meals |
| Wholesale / heartland | HAO Mart, Mustafa, Prime | Varies, bulk discounts | Many 24-hour | Bulk buys, specialty spices |
Here is the reality check most listicles skip: the same craving costs wildly different amounts depending on which mart you walk into. A convenience-store onigiri and a supermarket multipack are not competing on the same field.
At 7-Eleven, onigiri starts from about S$2.50 and the chain runs roughly 500 stores islandwide, so it is almost always the nearest option. Don Don Donki, the Japanese hypermarket, prices its own ready snacks low for the category: takoyaki around S$3.90 and the Oishii-Bo mentaiko sticks around S$5.90 as of early 2026, with Pocky, Calbee chips and Umaibo stocked deep. The trade-off is that Donki is a destination, not a corner shop.
Paying the convenience premium makes sense in three situations: it is past midnight and nothing else is open, you only need one or two items, or the store is running a real promotion. Cheers and 7-Eleven both rotate weekly deals on drinks and snacks that can briefly beat supermarket pricing on a single line.
For anything resembling a shop (three or more items, or anything you buy weekly) the value supermarket wins clearly. The markup on a basket of five snacks at a convenience store can hit S$3 to S$4 versus Sheng Siong or Giant, which is most of a hawker meal. If you are stocking a pantry, see how that compounds in our piece on supermarket discounts worth claiming.
The single biggest mart saving in 2026 is not a promotion, it is government money you may not have claimed. Around 1.38 million Singaporean households can claim S$500 in Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers, split as S$250 for hawkers and heartland merchants and S$250 for participating supermarkets. The supermarket half is redeemable at FairPrice, Sheng Siong, Giant, Cold Storage, HAO Mart, Prime Supermarket, Ang Mo Supermarket and U Stars, and the vouchers stay valid until 31 December 2027.
Chains stack their own promotions on top. FairPrice has run a deal giving a S$6 return voucher for every S$60 in CDC vouchers spent in one transaction, capped at 20 per transaction, while Sheng Siong unlocks discounted selected products once you spend at least S$20 in CDC vouchers in a single trip. Spending vouchers at the cheapest mart, then redeeming the bonus, is the closest thing to free snacks the system offers.
If you want to turn that S$250 windfall into something that compounds instead of disappearing into chips, our savings goal calculator shows what the same amount becomes if you redirect it. For the bigger picture on stretching every government dollar, the money management guide ties it together.
The right answer depends on what you are buying and when. Use this quick decision guide instead of just tapping the nearest pin.
For everyday snacks, value supermarkets like Sheng Siong, Giant and FairPrice Xtra are cheapest, with packets often from around S$1.50. Scarlett Supermarket can go lower at about S$1 for China-sourced snacks. Convenience stores are nearest but charge roughly 20% to 40% more on the same items.
Usually yes for convenience-store formats like 7-Eleven and Cheers, which price for speed and small pack sizes. But several full supermarkets, including some Sheng Siong, Giant and FairPrice Xtra outlets, also run 24 hours at normal low prices, so a late-night shop does not have to cost more if you reach one.
Yes, the S$250 supermarket portion of the 2026 CDC vouchers works at participating chains including FairPrice, Sheng Siong, Giant, Cold Storage, HAO Mart, Prime and U Stars, valid until 31 December 2027. They are not accepted at convenience-store chains, so redeem them at a value supermarket to stretch them furthest.
For Japanese products, Don Don Donki is generally cheaper than other Japanese specialty marts because it sources at scale, with its own ready snacks like takoyaki from around S$3.90 as of early 2026. For non-Japanese everyday snacks, a local value supermarket like Sheng Siong will still beat it on price.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.