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Casinos and Shopping Malls are Not The Answer

TracyTan866

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
It used to be the wealthy from the lesser developed countries in the region would travel to Singapore just to shop. But nowadays, luxury branded stores can also be found in their own cities. There's no need for them to travel to Singapore to acquire their latest luxury branded goods.

LV, Gucci, Rolex, Omega, Prada, Dior, Bvlgari, Ermenegildo Zegna, Mont-Blanc, Chanel, Hermes, and other mono-brand luxury boutiques can also be found in Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala-Lumpur, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, etc..making Singapore as a shopping destination for the rich redundant.

SG's retail sector is dead. The effect will filter down to the Malls, etc

PAP is behind the curve and is still relying on casinos and malls. With convenient air travel, gone are the days of easy money
 

JOKERCHEW

Alfrescian
Loyal
?



how about those theatres?
kings at kim tian?
odeon at north bridge rd?
pavillion, was it at marine parade?
forgotten name, the one at old great world, kim seng rd?



.
.
Theatres: Atlantic, Canton, Globe, Sky.
under Shaw Organisation.

i remember the nightclub Flamingo too.
 

congo9

Alfrescian
Loyal
SG's retail sector is dead. The effect will filter down to the Malls, etc

PAP is behind the curve and is still relying on casinos and malls. With convenient air travel, gone are the days of easy money

People can just fly HK or bangkok anytime just to have their wants satisfy.
 

extramarital

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
SG's retail sector is dead. The effect will filter down to the Malls, etc

PAP is behind the curve and is still relying on casinos and malls. With convenient air travel, gone are the days of easy money

Singapore sale no longer a top draw for tourists
See Kit Tang | @SeeKit_T
Sunday, 10 Aug 2014 | 6:33 PM ET CNBC.com

Singapore's reputation as a shopping haven could be at stake as rising prices and growing regional competition threaten to erode the city-state's allure as one of Asia's best retail destinations.

Latest figures from the Singapore Tourism Board showed tourists' expenditure on shopping falling 6 percent on-year during the first three months of 2014 to S$1.1 billion ($900 million). This pales in comparison to the entertainment and gaming sector, which surged 19 percent and raked in S$1.6 billion.

As Singapore's retail industry relies heavily on its tourism sector, a 14 percent annual decline in the number of Chinese visitors over the first quarter of 2014 may have contributed to the slump in spending. Mainland shoppers are the biggest spenders among tourists in the Southeast Asian city.

"Singapore is part of a group holiday itinerary for the Chinese, together with Malaysia and Thailand. The MH370 tragedy, along with the March protests in Bangkok, took the winds out of the sales for many retailers," said Alan Cheong, senior director of Research & Consultancy at Savills Singapore.

Singapore getting too costly?

One of the industry's weakest links is its pricing power, which, according to analysts, lacks competitiveness in the region.

"Rising rental, labor and transportation costs add up to the higher cost for products and that makes shopping in Singapore less attractive for tourists," Savills' Cheong told CNBC.

A stronger currency, which hit a nine-month high of 1.2359 against the U.S. dollar last month, is also to blame.

30-year-old Lu Xi from Guangzhou has lamented about how unfavorable exchange rates has forced up the cost of her trip. The Singapore dollar, which has benefitted from safe-haven inflows, is up 3 percent against the Chinese yuan in the past year.

"As this is not my first trip, I had a budget in mind but when we arrived, we realized things have become more costly. Last year, I bought a Charles and Keith handbag for S$70 (about $56); now it's nearly S$20 (about $16) more," Lu said.

Singapore no longer unique?

Apart from rising prices, the increasing popularity of e-commerce, as well as the preference by some brands to set up shop elsewhere in Asia, has significantly reduced the need for people to travel to Singapore to shop.

"Due to [Singapore's] small market size, many popular brands are not keen to bring their brands here. They'd rather bring it to bigger markets like China," said Dr Michael Chiam, senior lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Tourism and Resort Management.

"I think we can re-invent ourselves by attracting different brands to Singapore - new brands that locals or people in this region are not exposed to," he added.

But Dr Jannie Chan, president of Singapore Retailers Association, thinks the addition of new labels isn't a long-term solution.

"[This will] only bring short-term benefits as brands move fast and are adopted by other destinations very quickly," she wrote in an email to CNBC.

Still, she believes the city-state has an edge. "[Other destinations] do not have many of Singapore's key attributes, such as Orchard Road [which is] one the worlds few truly iconic shopping streets. Plus Singapore has a safe reputation and public transport," she noted.

There are also tourists who still prefer to shop in Singapore.

"I can buy things from different brands all over the world here. Apart from fashion trends, the structural design of the malls in Singapore is mesmerizing," 22-year-old graphic designer Melody Baustita from the Philippines said.

For Indonesian native Indra Fajriansyah, the extra service provided by retailers is what differentiates Singapore. "It's a better place to shop for branded good because the stores here give maintenance services (that involve the conditioning of leather bags) [which] I don't mind paying more for," he said.

For the first quarter of 2014, Singapore received 3.9 million international visitors, according to government statistics.
 

Dark Knight

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
The one and only biggest land lord, buildings, shopping malls, shop units and office space owners is non other than the Sillypore gahbrament itself.
They have been setting up several GLCs under the disguise of a so called private firms to built, own and manage all these properties.

Rentals keep going up every year and like it or not local retail business man have not much choice if you want to run your business at those prime locations.
Many cannot sustain the rental and business have to close shop eventually. Growing Sillypore's economy based on consumer spending is not likely to be sustainable
in the long run. Sillypore doesn't have any unique technological advantage in the region. Most of the stuffs here are being imported.
Many of the exported products here can even be make and assemble elsewhere.

The fat cat MIW only care and think of collecting GSTs and high rentals to feed their own expensive party members as a gahrament.
 

TracyTan866

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
People can just fly HK or bangkok anytime just to have their wants satisfy.

Correct. That's why lhl and the pap are grossly out of touch or totally incompetent. The big PRC spenders are not going to spend their money in SG. Gone are the Indonesian tycoons too
 

TracyTan866

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
The one and only biggest land lord, buildings, shopping malls, shop units and office space owners is non other than the Sillypore gahbrament itself.
They have been setting up several GLCs under the disguise of a so called private firms to built, own and manage all these properties.

Rentals keep going up every year and like it or not local retail business man have not much choice if you want to run your business at those prime locations.
Many cannot sustain the rental and business have to close shop eventually. Growing Sillypore's economy based on consumer spending is not likely to be sustainable
in the long run. Sillypore doesn't have any unique technological advantage in the region. Most of the stuffs here are being imported.
Many of the exported products here can even be make and assemble elsewhere.

The fat cat MIW only care and think of collecting GSTs and high rentals to feed their own expensive party members as a gahrament.

Excellent analysis. Thank you
 

zhihau

Super Moderator
SuperMod
Asset
did they close down or did they change name?

Chaplins closed way back in the early 2000 IIRC, Octagon even earlier. Mohd Sultan had its glory and subsequently that street was replaced with some eateries by late 2000s.
 

TracyTan866

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Chaplins closed way back in the early 2000 IIRC, Octagon even earlier. Mohd Sultan had its glory and subsequently that street was replaced with some eateries by late 2000s.

It shows that entertainment joints cannot survive in SG with such high rental costs. I heard Crazy Horse came and went too
 

Poomer

Alfrescian
Loyal
Bedok princess cinema closed a couple of years ago. It is opposite Bedok Mall, above the Mcdonalds and which is now a k-box type studio.

On the land where Bedok point is, there used to be another cinema with Indian Movies and another Mcdonalds.
 

ginfreely

Alfrescian
Loyal
Good points:smile:

1. Tay Ban Guan
2. Oriental Emporiums
3. Tah Chung Emporium
4. Fitzpatrick's
5. Cold Storage
6. OG
7. Metro
8. Yaohan
9. Daimaru
10. Galleries Lafayette
11. Carrefour
12. Isetan
13. Robinsons
14. Fairprice
15. Giants
16. Sheng Siong
17. K-Mart
18. SOGO
19. BHG
20. CK Tang

There is Prime supermarket with a number of outlets.
 
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