Plans to woo shoppers back, correct impression that area is best avoided due to events held there
BUSINESSES in the Suntec City area are languishing, even as shoppers nurse the impression that the area is now best avoided.
Shoppers think that, with the area being a mega-event hub, it is where road closures, traffic diversions and parking problems are.
Suntec Reit, the owner and manager of Suntec City Mall, plans to correct this perception with an advertising and promotions programme.
In the meantime, retailers there are totting up their losses.
First, there were the National Day Parade (NDP) rehearsals. They took place on all Saturdays from June 19 until July 31, so people steered clear of the closed roads.
Then came the rehearsals for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) opening ceremony, which made the area a near ghost town with road closures on at least some of the roads on Saturdays.
Now, after a week into the YOG, the roads have reopened, and the convention centre next to Suntec City Mall is abuzz as the YOG’s biggest competition venue.
Yet, the shops there have not enjoyed a business revival. Business is, in fact, down 60 per cent and it does not look like it will get better soon, with the Singapore Grand Prix (SGP) coming up next month.
For tenants at the mall, with a leasing area of 823,000 sq ft, the race meant seven days of road closures last year.
Sozo Fine Jewelry’s manager, Mr Steven Tan, said: ‘We’re sick of all these events disrupting business. All the major ones are held around here.’
Daily takings in his shop now hover at around $1,200, 40 per cent less than before the NDP.
He added: ‘People are avoiding the place. They think roads are blocked and the carparks are full, so what’s the point of coming here?’
He is one of the 25 tenants in the mall and the first floor of the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre to whom The Straits Times spoke. Of the 25, 20 said business had not picked up since the NDP.
Only one tenant, a money-changer, has enjoyed brisk business; the remaining four say the events do not affect them because they rely on regulars rather than walk-in customers.
At The North Face, which sells outdoor adventure gear, sales have plunged by more than half to around $900 a day since the YOG began, said senior sales assistant Armando Vitales Jr.
He added that it was worse during the NDP period, when daily takings hit a record low of $286.
This is well below the shop’s daily target of $2,000, which had been mostly attainable until the NDP rehearsals rolled around.
Even the food outlets have been hit.
At The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC), business has fallen 30 per cent, and at Swiss Culture, which serves up Alpine cuisine, by half.
Swiss Culture manager Linda Bondoc said: ‘It’s especially difficult in the evenings. Now, the F1 is coming up, we’re worried.’
Suntec Reit’s chief executive, Mr Yeo See Kiat, said: ‘It’s a perception problem. People just avoid Marina Bay when an event is on.
‘They glance at road closure announcements and immediately decide to avoid the place. They don’t even read the details; the fact is it’s a breeze to get parking here, the roads aren’t closed and it’s business as usual in the mall.’
Singapore Polytechnic business school lecturer Sarah Lim, who co-wrote Retail Operations, a book on how to run a retail store here, said this is a classic example of ‘a good location turned bad’.
‘All these peripheral events may seem to bring crowds to the location. But the crowd is here for the event, not to shop. In the meantime, the public avoids the place. It’s a natural reaction after hearing about congestion and road closures in the media and seeing signs on the roads.’
She recommends that the mall run a publicity campaign to publicise the mall’s accessibility – exactly what Mr Yeo is planning in the run-up to the SGP.
Suntec Reit has also met the Land Transport Authority and the Singapore Tourism Board to see how the situation can be improved.
Meanwhile, Mr Anwar Deen, the money-changer on the first floor of the convention centre, has seen his business go up by nearly a third since the YOG started. He said, grinning: ‘Everyone wants some money in their wallets. But where they spend it, I don’t know.’
Source : Straits Times – 23 Aug 2010