# #837 Landlords Killing Businesses? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/plan-b-6331751/837-landlords-killing-businesses Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/plan-b-6331751/837-landlords-killing-businesses.md Podcast: [Plan B](https://stenobird.com/podcast/plan-b-6331751) Published: 2026-01-23T10:00:01+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/muhddzar6/episodes/837-Landlords-Killing-Businesses-e3e2m0b Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/fed2bfb4/podcast/play/114431435/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-0-23%2F416675828-44100-2-cecc3fec2e0d5.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/plan-b-6331751/episodes/837-landlords-killing-businesses Duration seconds: 2750 ## Resource Every other week, another beloved local business shuts its doors, and the reason is almost always the same: rising rents. As closures mount, some say the vacuum is being filled by foreign players, particularly from China. To understand what’s really happening, we speak to the founders of popular halal Chinese eatery Deanna’s Kitchen about their fears for the future, and to Vernon Lim of the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises to unpack what’s driving landlords’ decisions. The answers may surprise you. (00:58) Say hello to Vernon Lim! (02:18) Founders of Deanna’s Kitchen (05:30) Growing trend of businesses closing down (10:33) Explaining landlord’s decisions (17:25) Should the government step in? (30:00) Competition with China-owned businesses (34:15) “Running a business based on passion is a privilege” ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/plan-b-6331751/episodes/837-landlords-killing-businesses/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/plan-b-6331751/837-landlords-killing-businesses.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.