SINGAPORE – More than 20 tourist souvenir stores in Singapore, many of which have been in operation for decades, have closed for smart people suffering from Covid-19 travel restrictions here and around the world.
On bad days, some gift shops at popular tourist spots like Chinatown and Bugis Street don’t even see a single customer.
“It would be a pity. After all, we are also promoting Singapore for tourists,” said Chen, 29, who estimates that 90% of the souvenir department store will close in the next six months if they don’t arrive sooner. .
The pandemic has decimated the tourism industry, with the air paralyzed by the closure of borders.
Singapore recorded a terrible arrival of 2,200 guests in June, up from 1.6 million last year. There were 750 guests in April and 880 in May, at 1.6 million and 1.5 million in the same months last year.
The effect it has had on these souvenir shops, which have the tourist market to survive. For those stores, activity fell by at least 80%.
Many investors have had to take use of their savings for their business and some have stopped asking for new stocks since February.
These outlets sell a variety of souvenirs, ranging from Merlion chocolates to exclusive kebaya T-shirts and tops in Singapore.
When ST visited Bugis Street last Thursday, it saw a dozen bags of unopened Singapore t-shirts and kebayas in a store. Last week, store owner Alice Leow, 67, said she had nothing to do.
He has bought new shares since March and plans to liquidate his business.
“We sell souvenirs but if there are no tourists, how can we sell them? People may not buy souvenirs,” Leow said. “I don’t know what to do; we can’t return the goods.”
Despite this, some souvenir stores stated that they had a contract to open every day.
On Orchard Road, a Loss-loss shop in the past six months has had to fire two workers. Its owner, who refused to be identified, now has fewer than 10 consumers a day, about 40 visitors before the arrival of Covid-19.
As a result, he shortened opening hours from thirteen to 8 hours. “Otherwise, I’d be doing nothing,” he added.
Some outlets have promotional masks or have implemented shorter pay cuts and hours of operation to reduce prices and stay afloat.
The Singapore Remembrance Centre has stopped all souvenir production since January. Gone are the days when buses full of tourists arrived to collect souvenirs. Their outlets now sell masks.
“We had plans for more services, but since then they’ve been suspended,” Chen said.
Cindy Zhao has closed 3 of her 4 outlets in Chinatown, where high rents charge her about $20,000 a month, according to the store.
Last Friday, the 50-year-old owner of Orchid Chopsticks, who sells souvenirs such as chopsticks and fans, was busy transporting goods from one store to another.
“It’s heartbreaking because I put so many paintings in the shops,” said Zhao, who has painted in the industry for more than 15 years.
Another store, The Tintin Shop, which has been promoting character-like memorabilia in Chinatown for 10 years, closes its doors this month.
The store, which had between two hundred and three hundred visitors a day earlier, now only sees a handful of consumers. Tourists accounted for 80% of their consumers before the arrival of Covid-19.
“It’s a miracle if we can see 10 people. It doesn’t even make sense to turn on the air conditioner,” said shop owner Gabriel Tan, 33.
He added: “It’s a miserable sight to see Chinatown like this. it’s like a ghost town.
Recently, the store began offering discounts of at least 30 percent. He also began promoting infrequent collectibles that he had never put up for sale to increase the budget for relocation. “It’s like we’re donating portions of the store,” Tan said.
He said some other store is “betting in favor of the market, hoping to be there when things get back to normal.”
Helen Anthony, 53, who works at the store, said: “Even on weekends they are quiet. It is not imaginable that it will continue when we cannot cover the rent. . »
Store owners believe they may not have lasted that long without government measures, such as wage aid and hiring reimbursements, but many still don’t know if their businesses would suffer from the pandemic.
“We took it one day at a time, ” said the lucky Gift House owner to Lucky Plaza. “The problem is that we have no idea how long it would last.”
The 54-year-old woman, who called Ms. Yu, said the store had been bleeding for six months.
“We have to be realistic,” he said. “If we don’t make money, we still don’t have a choice to end the business.”
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