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Great Singapore Sale has run its course

I was not surprised to read the report “Singapore Sale no longer great, say shops, public” (Aug 14).

Shoppers at Orchard during the Great Singapore Sale. TODAY file photo

Shoppers at Orchard during the Great Singapore Sale. TODAY file photo

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Narayana Narayana

I was not surprised to read the report “Singapore Sale no longer great, say shops, public” (Aug 14).

The advertising blitz was lacking during this year’s extended 66-day Great Singapore Sale (GSS) from June 9 to Aug 13. Not many may have been aware, or for that matter cared that the GSS was in town.

As the saying goes, “Coming events cast their shadows before.”

Last year’s GSS prompted a report with suggestions for change from various quarters.

This year, sales started before the GSS, with mid-year promotions from established department stores.

With bargains of up to 90 per cent off advertised regularly from the beginning of the year, locals would have had little ammunition left for the GSS markdowns. And how much more could these have been?

If the GSS was launched by the Singapore Tourism Board in 1994 to market Singapore as a shopping destination, the succeeding years have taken the gilt off the gingerbread, due in no small measure to the strong Singapore dollar.

Visitors generally are unlikely to splurge on items that are not much cheaper here than in other destinations or even their own country. And with the convenience of e-shopping nowadays, purchases arrive at one’s doorstep.

Roaming around shopping centres for bargains appears to be on the way out.

If the average Singaporean were like me, he or she would probably walk a few blocks where the same stuff could be had for less.

The GSS has had a good innings, and perhaps it is time to put it out to pasture.

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