Commentary: Is COVID-19 the final straw that breaks the Orchard Road camel’s back?
SINGAPORE: Last week, I finally prepare human foot in Orchard Route for the first time since Singapore's excursion breaker started in April to get a much-needed haircut.
Information technology felt good to return to my erstwhile stomping ground but information technology was likewise disconcerting to walk through the empty shopping district.
Many boutiques had cleared out their window displays and packed abroad stock. The corridors of Mandarin Gallery were empty, relieve for the occasional delivery person hustling to pick up nutrient from an F&B outlet that had kept its kitchen open.
At Takashimaya basement, where I had dropped past for a cursory supermarket sweep at Cold Storage, I paused to gape at the bizarre sight of the mall's vacant bazaar atrium which in normal times is usually thrumming with bargain hunters.
I was saddened to witness this in one case vibrant, bustling shopping district at present devoid of activeness.
Yet in a style, this ghost boondocks scene also offers a dystopian peek into what might lay ahead for this shopping street years in the future, if information technology continues on this gradual path of refuse.
HOW NOW ORCHARD Road?
Orchard Road's troubles started long before the coronavirus' advent. In recent years, there has been much talk about how it has been slowly losing its appeal, especially in comparing to newer and more architecturally impressive destinations like Marina Bay Sands and Precious stone Changi Drome.
Final twelvemonth's sordid Orchard Towers murder instance, which led to a renewed scrutiny of this sleazy, vice-filled corner of this supposedly glitzy district, did not help either.
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Increasing vacancy rates, loftier rents and decreasing footfall accept tarnished Orchard'south shine.
Mall landlords also have a function to play in this deplorable situation, in choosing to sign on cookie-cutter tenants, leading to an uncanny sameness amidst multiple buildings forth the shopping strip, which inappreciably encourages leisurely mall-hopping.
At present, with non-essential retail stores shuttered during the excursion breaker and nutrient establishments allowed only to operate commitment and take-out services, similar most other malls effectually Singapore and the world, the commune has go tragically irrelevant.
COVID-19 MADE THINGS WORSE
Retail'south reliance on homo traffic and physical interaction has been its Achilles' heel.
The collapse was swift. According to the latest information released by the Department of Statistics, retail sales in Singapore plunged by 40 per cent year-on-yr in April. Even more heart-stopping is the freefall driblet in sales for Orchard Road-axial categories such as department stores (-75 per cent), apparel and footwear (-74.8 per cent) besides as watches and jewellery (-81.three per cent).
Marquee events take been cancelled. While Orchard Road'due south signature event, the Great Singapore Auction, was finally regaining some steam last year, there will be no GSS this yr because of COVID-19.
These may be the first signs of an impending coronavirus-triggered global retail apocalypse. While there accept been some initial reports of mail service-lockdown "revenge spending" in South korea and China, experts agree shoppers will not likely return in hordes, especially with concerns about safety distancing, not to mention an impending recession.
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In the United States, the looting and destruction of many shopping districts during the Black Lives Matters riots have added a security dimension to the challenge that will likely delay the reopening of these destinations even as COVID-19 restrictions are eased.
And in Europe, there is currently niggling news nigh shopping surges even though some countries have been gradually reopening.
This crisis has even gripped longstanding retail titans. Inditex, the company which owns fast style make Zara, announced this week it would exist shuttering up to i,200 stores worldwide. Other clothing giants such as H&Thou and Gap have also reported sharp declines in sales.
In Singapore, household names like apparel brand Camaraderie is closing all xi stores here, Robinsons is winding up its Jem department store by Baronial and many local retailers are unsure how long they tin keep staying in business in this gloomy climate.
East-COMMERCE OUR NEW NORMAL
In this harsh new reality, many brands and retailers have been scrambling to brand an almost panicked pin to digital shopping. The transformation has been messy just worth applauding when more than are recognising the permanence of this sea change.
This makes sensible strategy whether you lot're a chain or a unmarried shop. Even luxury brands, a category traditionally been slow to make the e-commerce jump and preferring to provide clients with a total, sensorial in-store feel, are at present aggressively touting their online shopping and delivery services.
Though I have always preferred to browse in a concrete store, I also have been unable to resist ownership things online but for the temporary thrill of retail therapy while confined at home. (I am at present the sheepish owner of too much exercise equipment, a dozen identical crew-cervix t-shirts in different colours and a few sets of pink fairy lights.)
Many people have moved from hesitantly trying out online shopping for essentials similar groceries or toilet newspaper to buying so much more - and they will probable never look dorsum.
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When the economic system reopens, people might do some shopping on their weekly supermarket runs, so shops in heartland malls may experience some lift from pent up need.
Yet where does that leave Orchard Road if heading to the primary shopping district is no longer a weekend routine to pass time? Will the coronavirus conductor in an ice age for retail promenades?
A Blink OF HOPE
In that location is a adventure this pandemic might induce a much more compelling Orchard Road to emerge from the ashes. We know that plans are already ongoing to transform the shopping belt, unveiled last twelvemonth past Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing.
Withal, many of its initial proposals, including pedestrianising sections of the road and holding more street activities seem counter to the demand for social distancing for the foreseeable future.
The committee may demand to modify these plans to address this reality. Hopefully they will also consider this cardinal question - how can Orchard Route continue alluring serious large spenders?
As information technology is, the root of the issue - that the repetitiveness of the shops are just kind of uninspiring - is something that just landlords can figure out.
Even international luxury brands can afford to differentiate their local boutiques a trivial meliorate. For instance, is there fifty-fifty a difference between the Louis Vuitton boutiques at Ion Orchard and Takashimaya?
Mayhap it is not such a bad matter that Zara, Esprit and possibly other fast way brands might be endmost at least some of their multiple cloned Orchard Road stores. This would then create the opportunity for more than artistic and varied uses of the vacated infinite.
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Other one time popular Singapore brands, like Song+Kelly, Alldressedup and Mphosis take sadly folded, at least in part due to the proliferation of fast fashion. These were the shopping destinations that gave consumers a sense of Singapore at its nearly inspiring, a factor that is key in getting people to hand over their credit cards.
Think of the spaceship-like Comme des Garcons flagship in Omotesando, Tokyo; the riotously exuberant Style Nanda boutique in Seoul, South korea; or the ornate Galeries Lafayette in Paris. When yous visit those boutiques, chances are, you would probably purchase at to the lowest degree a pocket-size item as a memento to remind you of the experience.
More ever, we need standout, one-of-a-kind and ideally homegrown retail concepts in Singapore that cannot exist found elsewhere to ballast our flagship shopping district.
Nosotros already know people will still spend coin.
With retail shops opening this Friday (Jun 19) every bit we enter phase 2, perhaps at that place will be a heave in sales figures with the population in a celebratory mood.
Simply in the longer run in stage three and beyond, as people get accustomed to living with social distancing as the default, they will demand a compelling reason to strap on a mask, stride out of their homes and continue making their way into a brick-and-mortar shop.
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Karen Tee is a freelance writer.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-covid-19-final-straw-breaks-orchard-road-camels-back-295236
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