Dear readers, I read that Kinokuniya will be downsizing its store in Takashimaya.
As a book lover, I frequent Kinokuniya store for its vast array of fresh and crispy books and hence I feel disappointed to learn of the downsizing news.
However with traditional bookstores getting less of a traction among younger folks, I have already expected at some point in time, Kinokuniya to be impacted. Just recall the exit of MPH bookstore from Singapore. At least I feel a sense of relief that Kinokuniya is just downsizing and not exiting Singapore all together.
And not forgetting, one of Singapore’s largest bookshops, Popular Bookstore. I have noticed a number of Popular Bookstores have closed. I have also noticed that Popular’s flagship store in Bras Basah has similarly reduced the number of floors that it occupies.
As a food lover, recently on my day off, I patronized a famous lor mee chain stall. It was a Friday and I was surprised that when I arrived at the stall just after 8am, the stall assistant was still cooking and preparing.
Surprising, when I visited the stall some time back, there were at least 2 to 3 stall assistants, one in charge of manning the tills, one preparing the food and one assisting with the carrying of the food. Now it was just one-man operation and the shop did not even commence setup at 8am which was quite late.
When the stall finally started business for the day, it was the same assistant who prepared the food who managed the tills and brought the meal I ordered. Obviously, the stall has cut manpower. I was also disappointed with the pricer lor mee (at $8) that I ordered. No longer was the lor mee decent with the great ingredients but it was a scaled down version as ingredients for the lor mee were visibly reduced: to cut costs as well.
I shrugged my head as I have been paying for higher prices for many of the food but not only that with the higher prices, many of the stalls still cut ingredients to save even more cost.
I am also disappointed with more and more businesses who have been with us exiting Singapore altogether. Like Marks and Spencer in Parkway Parade and Malaysian Food Street in Resort World Sentosa. Very likely they exit Singapore due to the high tenancy costs as what I have read.