Primary tabs

Singapore malls take lead in bumping up food space to counter online hit

Reuters Published on Fri, Jun 30, 2017 / 5:01 PM GMT+8

A-

A+

SINGAPORE (June 30): Singapore's shopping centres, intent on keeping units filled and luring back patrons, are renting space to eateries far beyond industry norms in what observers say is a glimpse of how malls are coping with the online onslaught on brick-and-mortar stores.

The often-billed shopping paradise, with Asia's highest retail space per capita, has seen vacancy rates and rents near their weakest in at least six years - metrics which place its malls among the worst-performing of the region's bigger economies.

Malls globally have long been countering Internet shopping by adding features not easily replicated online, such as cinemas and schools, but the impact of changing consumer trends is more pronounced in Singapore due to an oversupply of retail space.