SINGAPORE: A walk down Orchard Road just as the coronavirus pandemic has hit Singapore’s famous shopping street.
Gone are restaurants like Modesto, which closed last month after 23 years.
Rows of Chinese tourists are missing in front of Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
Shopping along the 2.4km stretch, once one of Asia’s leading shopping shops, Array is dotted with empty stores.
On a recent midweek afternoon, the number of store workers who dust shelves or play with their cell phones that greet consumers is remarkable.
“This is the worst crisis for Singapore and Orchard Road,” said Kiran Assodani, who runs his bespoke sewing workshop at one of the oldest grocery stores in 35 years.
The point of sale of the changes, which is aimed at tourists and locals, has noticed that its sales fell by 90% since the epidemic of the virus.
“I don’t know if department stores can cope with this storm.”
Orchard Road’s malaise is a city-state microcosm.
After the initial good fortune of the Covid-19 master’s degree, an epidemic spread across dozens of dormitories housing foreign workers, causing a two-month partial blockade that led the economy to its worst recession.
Global restrictions deprive Singapore of approximately US$20 billion in tourism profits and the domestic market is too small to fill the void.
Record collapse
Originally, the site of fruit, nutmeg and pepper farms in the early 19th century that gave the band its name, transforming Orchard Road into a dazzling shopping mall, the first branch opened in 1958, reflected Singapore’s expansion from a sleepy announcement advanced to one of the world’s richest nations.
Now the decline of the economy is aligned.
Italian restaurant Modesto survived the SARS epidemic and Asian and global currency crises for more than two decades on Orchard Road, but has deformed under the coronavirus.
Instead of renewing your lease, owner Ashok Melwani will decrease your losses and close permanently.
“If I renewed, I would sign up for a roller coaster in the dark,” said the 62-year-old man, who also closed a moment near Modesto’s store.
“I can bleed and bleed into sight.”
Modesto’s restaurant stands shuttered along Orchard Road in Singapore, on Saturday, July 25, 2020.
Singapore’s economy plunged into recession last quarter as an extended lockdown shuttered businesses and decimated retail spending, a sign of the pain the pandemic is wreaking across export-reliant Asian nations.
The downturn has hit luxury and bargain-basement retailers equally hard.
Robert Chua, who runs a discounted store at Far East Plaza, estimates it may take about two more months.
I used to earn about S$25,000 a month by promoting suitcases and backpacks to basically American, European and Chinese tourists.
Now, a $300 S-day is a day, and some days there are no consumers at all.
“Every day I come to town with a feeling of sadness,” the 50-year-old said.
Inside his account books he keeps three S$50 notes – a Chinese superstition meant to keep money flowing in, to no avail.
“I can’t sleep thinking about the expenses I have to pay.”
Their hiring of S$6,000 resumed this month after the government and some owners ended hiring refunds in July.
At least 20 outlets in Far East Plaza, which are partly owned by the billionaire circle of rb Capital relatives, are empty, with “rental” decals glued with optimism on their blinds.
A few blocks from the highest-level city of Ngee Ann, which is a component of Starhill Global REIT’s portfolio, is a similar story.
Several outlets are closed, adding a Japanese eating spot and a British Indian clothing retailer.
“It’s never been worse and I’ve been operating in retail since 1994,” said Nana Sahamat, director of Japanese clothing store Fray I.D.
“Before the crisis, I was busy entertaining customers, but now I spend more time doing scenes.”
It’s true that Orchard Road is already wasting its glow before it hit the coronavirus.
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands has attracted wealthy tourists and national consumers with upscale stores such as Christian Louboutin, Fendi and Gucci, and gourmet restaurants like Cut through Wolfgang Puck.
Pedestrians dressed in a protective mask pass through a Victoria’s Secret exit along Orchard Road.
Meanwhile, the most cost-conscious shoppers head to the suburbs that are full of big brands like Uniqlo, Zara and Topshop, and no longer see the desire to venture into Orchard Road.
“Before the pandemic, Orchard Road had already noticed a decline in sales and pedestrians,” said Wong King Yin, senior marketing professor at Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore.
“It is only when foreign tourism has fully recovered, the economy has recovered and everyone is able to spend, and when Orchard Road will offer exclusive reports rather than shopping, the community can attract other people as it did at its peak,” he told me.
They have been repeated to rejuvenate the area.
The futuristic Ion Orchard Mall that buys groceries at CapitaLand Ltd opened in 2009 and shoppers can get everything they want, from luxury and fashion jewelry to affordable brands like Swarovski.
There is also a huge food court in the basement offering fast food and Singaporean street specialties.
The Strip also bought groceries at midnight, night from pedestrians and a makeover of S$40 million to expand sidewalks.
“The experiments brought in are not yet to ‘impress’ consumers,” Wong said.
Last year, the government unveiled new plans for Orchard Road in a “lifestyle destination.”
The band is expected to be divided into 4 neighborhoods, for their own purpose, such as arts and culture, a youth center and a grass-court district.
“Like many other cities, Singapore is investigating imaginable adjustments to customer behavior and has an effect on the pandemic on our urban progression plans,” said the Singapore Tourism Board and the Urban Reprogresion Authority in an email reaction to Bloomberg’s questions.
“If necessary, we will adjust and progress express plans.”
For restaurant owner Melwani, it’s all a little too late.
“Orchard Road has its charms, however, I’m afraid the shipment has sailed,” he said.
“Honestly, I don’t know what glamour can bring back.”
Muhyiddin Yassin calls on the Malays to continue to agree in the country and to fly the Jalur Gemilang wherever they are.