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SINGAPORE: Robinsons announced on Friday (October 30) that it will close its last two department stores in Singapore, after more than 160 years in the country.
Robinsons said it has started the process of liquidating its stores at The Heeren and Raffles City Shopping Center, following “significant shifts from offline to online spending” among customers and weakened demand exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.
The company will also close two stores in Malaysia.
Here are some things you might not know about the Robinsons:
READ: Robinsons to close last 2 stores in Singapore due to weak demand
ROBINSONS WAS NOT HIS ORIGINAL NAME
Originally known as Spicer and Robinson, it was founded in 1858 by Australian immigrant Philip Robinson and former Singapore jailer James Gaborian Spicer.
The two men opened the business as a “family store” in Commercial Square, now known as Raffles Place, according to an article in the National Library Board (NLB) digital library.
Initially, it sold foods such as tea, rice, sugar, oatmeal, cookies, crackers, cheese, and cold cuts, as well as women’s hats and sewing items.
Robinson changed the name to Robinson and Company after Spicer left the business in 1859 and a new partner, George Rappa, joined.
Robinson’s son, Stamford Raffles Robinson, took over the company after his father’s death in 1886.
In 1891, the store moved to its new premises at 26 and 27 Raffles Place, and was registered as a limited liability company in 1920.
It later moved to a larger site in Raffles Chambers in 1941, offering an air-conditioned café, hair salons, and merchandise such as men’s and women’s clothing, leather goods, confectionery, and silverware.
REGIONAL ROYALTIES AMONG EARLY CUSTOMERS
Robinson had hired vendors to travel the Malay archipelago and Borneo to attract customers, rather than open stores in the region.
Soon aristocrats like the rulers of the Malay Archipelago and King Mongkut of Siam joined a growing list of clients.
By 1881, the company had become a popular meeting place for the European community in Singapore.
TWO FIREPLACES AND A MAJOR FIRE
The bombs hit the building twice during the Japanese invasion, but the department store resumed operations the next day.
However, it remained closed during the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945, resuming trade in 1946.
On November 21, 1972, a massive fire caused by a short circuit on the ground floor destroyed the Raffles Place building.
The fire also damaged the roof of the neighboring Overseas Union Bank building and forced the stock market to delist that day.
Nine people died, eight of whom were trapped in the elevators, and property worth $ 21 million was lost in the fire.
EXPANSION IN SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA
After the fire, Robinsons opened a new store at the Specialists Shopping Center on Orchard Road on December 11, 1972, and added a branch at Clifford Center in July 1977.
In June 1983, the company moved the main store from Orchard Road to The Centrepoint and closed its Clifford Center branch in November of the same year.
New stores were opened at Raffles City Mall in 2001 and at JEM in Jurong East in 2013. A new flagship store at The Heeren also opened in November 2013.
Robinsons in The Heeren. (Photo: Robinsons)
It also has two stores in Kuala Lumpur: at The Gardens at Mid Valley Mall and The Shoppes at Four Seasons Place.
In 2008, the store’s ownership changed after the UAE-based Al Futtaim Group bought 88% of the company’s shares. Al Futtaim Group also operates Marks & Spencer, Zara and Ted Baker in Singapore.
Robinsons closed its The Centrepoint store at the end of its lease in March 2014, after 31 years of being the anchor tenant, and its JEM store in August 2020.
A man walks past a window of a Robinsons retail outlet in Singapore on September 19, 2003 (File Photo: AFP / Roslan Rahman).
On October 30, 2020, the company announced that it will close its last two department stores in Singapore due to changes in retail shopping patterns and weak demand exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ: Robinsons to close Jem’s outlet at the end of August
ROBINSONS SALES
Since 2018, Robinsons has offered steep discounts for interested shoppers at its Black Friday Sale, a 24-hour shopping event that takes place the day after Thanksgiving in November.
Customers waited in line for hours before the doors opened at the stroke of midnight, hoping to get discounted deals of up to 80 percent at all stores.
In 2018, the company delivered bottles of chicken essence to early risers in queue and free coffee starting at 9 a.m.
