SINGAPORE – British fashion brands Topshop and Topman will close their last outlet here next Thursday (Sept 17) and instead go online, with retail experts saying that more brands might follow suit.
On Friday (Sept 11), Topshop’s and Topman’s brand manager here Wing Tai Retail confirmed the closure of the VivoCity outlet, and said that its focus for the two brands will be online.
Topshop and Topman have been in Singapore for two decades, with the first store at Wisma Atria in Orchard Road in 2000.
A Wing Tai Retail spokesman said that the lease of the brands’ shop at VivoCity has ended, and that Wing Tai will be focusing on its omnichannel retail strategy – which involves both physical and online sales channels – to better meet changing consumer preferences.
Besides Topshop and Topman, Wing Tai Retail also manages brands like Adidas, G2000, Dorothy Perkins and Uniqlo in Singapore.
Considering what’s going on around the world, it’s a tough market for real estate these days.
With Covid-19 brutalising the economy, property agents are finding new ways to stand out and make aspiring homeowners pay attention.
In a case of creative marketing gone awry though, a real estate husband-and-wife duo attracted the wrong kind of attention.
PropNex Realty agents who go by their collective name Jasen & Shiqi were the subject of online brickbats after a YouTube video they produced went viral for less-than-positive reasons.
Shared on their YouTube channel on Sept 6, the video featured the two ethnic Chinese agents marketing a five-room flat in Jalan Bukit Merah for sale — while dressed in traditional Indian outfits, spouting phrases in Malay and Tamil, and performing a dance routine that was neither here nor there in terms of cultural accuracy.
It took just three days, after viewing what would be his future home, for Wong Jing Yean, 32, to place a bid of $1.07 million — the highest bid for the Bishan HDB flat — on April 7.
The unit is one of the 480 in Natura Loft, a Design, Build and Sell Share (DBSS) project at Bishan Street 24. Located on the 20th storey, it comes with a panoramic view of the city skyline. The 5-room apartment spans a spacious 1,300 sq ft too, SRX reported.
The search for this unit had not been a walk in the park for Wong. Having to hunt for houses as the Covid-19 pandemic grew in severity before the circuit breaker meant reduced viewings in order to abide by social distance requirements, he told The Straits Times.
It took viewing up to 20 five-room flats and maisonettes ranging between 1,300 sq ft and 1,700 sq ft in size before Wong and his wife, 32-year-old Chee Suet Yee, were able to find their dream home.
SINGAPORE: Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and ST Engineering on Monday (Sep 14) said they have launched Singapore’s first barrier-free smart car park to make parking easier across the university’s campuses.
Developed by the electronics arm of ST Engineering, the Smart Car Park System uses automatic number plate recognition, data analytics and mobile payment technologies to provide ticketless and barrier-free entry and exit at car parks.
The system will reduce costs for car park operators and provide insights on the usage of their car parks, said NTU and ST Engineering in a press release.
The system is in operation at three car parks at NTU’s main Jurong campus, and will be progressively implemented at all 59 car parks in the university’s campuses, including Novena and one-north. When completed by the end of 2021, it will cover more than 4,000 parking lots.
The Smart Car Park System will be rolled out at all NTU car parks by the end of 2021. (Photo: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Motorists using the car parks must first register via the GoParkin mobile app and provide their details and credit or debit card information. When entering the car park, their registered number plate will be recognised, and the parking fee calculated at the exit and billed to their account.
The system also collects parking data and provides real-time information on car park occupancy via the GoParkin app.
Motorists will be pointed to the closest available parking spots with car park rates, which saves time in searching for available lots. They can also apply and pay for season parking using the app.
The cloud-based platform provides NTU with an overview of parking occupancy records and an asset management module to help identify preventive maintenance, to prevent costly downtime and extend the value of the equipment.
Using automatic number plate recognition technology is also more cost-effective compared with the conventional electronic parking system, which uses the In-Vehicle Unit and cash card for processing parking fee payments, NTU and ST Engineering said.
As the app allows motorists to make their parking fee payments remotely, it eliminates the need for physical payment stations and barriers at car parks.
Besides developing the system, ST Engineering’s electronics arm will also provide managed services for all NTU car parks.
ST Engineering Electronics president Ravinder Singh said the system manages parking in a more effective and sustainable way by reducing pollution and traffic congestion.
“Beyond these, insights on car park usage can potentially generate new value-added services for motorists and transform business models for car park operators,” he said.
NTU president Professor Subra Suresh said the car park system is an example of an innovation that improves everyday life through technology.
“This is in line with the NTU Smart Campus vision whereby we harness the power of technology in a sustainable manner to improve the quality of life of members of our community,” he added.
SINGAPORE – Singapore’s privacy watchdog fined ride-hailing app Grabcar $10,000, saying a 2019 update put the data of some users at risk of unauthorised access in what the watchdog said was a fourth breach of data privacy regulations and “a significant cause for concern”.
In a filing published on Sept. 10, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) said the update risked the personal data of 21,541 drivers and passengers, including profile pictures, names and vehicle plate numbers, related to carpooling service GrabHitch.
Grabcar, a unit of Southeast Asia’s largest startup Grab Holdings, rolled back the app to the previous version within about 40 minutes and took other remedial action, the PDPC said.
“Given that the organisation’s business involves processing large volumes of personal data on a daily basis, this is a significant cause for concern,” the PDPC said.
The regulator also directed Grab to put in place a data protection by design policy, where data protection measures are considered and built into tech systems as they are being developed.
SINGAPORE – About 10 ornaments to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival were taken down on Saturday (Sept 12) night following comments from the public that they bore Chinese greetings that did not suit the occasion.
The banner-like lanterns had been strung up above South Bridge Road on Sept 10, ahead of the traditional street light-up in Chinatown that will take place from Thursday (Sept 17) to Oct 16.
This year’s light-up is set to comprise about 700 lanterns and sculptures which depict traditional festival motifs and characters such as Chang’e, goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology.
However, before the official light-up ceremony on Thursday, keen-eyed members of the public found some of the greetings on the China-made decorations to be inappropriate.
While some of the greetings were typically associated with the Chinese New Year, others were not coherent.
For instance, one ornament bore a message in Chinese that translated to “bright and majestic”, which is not a traditional phrase, while another said “joy for the nation”.
Even the most cautious pawrent can sometimes never truly be prepared for an unexpected situation. So, here’s our list of 24-hour emergency vets across the island (arranged by zones) to give your furkid a higher of survival.
Singapore Post delivered a record volume of e-commerce packages over the circuit breaker period, as store closures forced consumers to shop online.
Together, the postal service and courier arm Speedpost handled three million e-commerce items in May, a 50 per cent increase over the same month last year, Mr Vincent Phang, SingPost’s Singapore head and chief executive of postal services, told The Straits Times.
The reopening of bricks-and-mortar stores has not led to a significant drop in deliveries, indicating a permanent shift in consumer behaviour that is accelerating the growth of e-commerce in Singapore, he said in an interview.
The Covid-19 pandemic has thus made the need to revamp the postal infrastructure more urgent, he said.
To kick-start this effort, SingPost will be conducting a public trial of its smart letterbox system in the coming months.
Instead of individual letterboxes, this system entails a central machine that stores and dispenses mail and small packages.
The police have found no evidence to support allegations made in an online post on Polling Day that an election official had told a voter’s 80-year-old mother who to vote for.
In a statement to The New Paper last Thursday, a police spokesman said the allegation was thoroughly investigated after police reports were lodged on July 10.
The police, in consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, will take no further action.
In a now-deleted post, a Facebook user claimed her mother had told her a “polling agent” had insisted she vote for the People’s Action Party and had shown her where to mark her vote.
The user said her sister had accompanied their mother to the polling station at her allotted time-band between 8am and 10am, and the “polling agent” offered to help the older woman.
The Elections Department (ELD) issued a statement that afternoon saying it was aware of the serious allegations and urged the user to come forward with specifics.
It said: “All polling agents are confined to a specific area in the polling station to observe the polling process and they are not allowed to assist voters.
A brawl broke out between two men in a coffee shop last Wednesday (Sept 9), at Block 130 Jurong Gateway Road.
The police said they were alerted to a case of a rash act causing hurt at about 5.30pm, and a 40-year-old man was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.
Investigations are ongoing.
A 10-minute video of the incident circulating online shows two men, who appear to be drunk, behaving aggressively towards each other.
A man in a white shirt can be seen challenging another man, in a black singlet, who is lying on the floor.
PUNCHES
The man in white is seen shouting vulgarities in the video and challenging the other man to a fight, telling him to get up.
After the man in black gets up, they push and shove each other before exchanging punches.
They fall but continue to fight.
Other men can be seen trying to stop the pair but are not successful.
After the pair get up, they continue to push and shout at each other until police officers are called in.
