SINGAPORE – Times Bookstores has shuttered its Plaza Singapura and Waterway Point branches, as the chain’s presence here and in the region continues to dwindle in the face of weak sales and low foot traffic.
The development marks the latest in a slew of Times closures over the past five years.
Times declined to comment on its future plans in Singapore, and whether it had attempted a new bid to stay on in either locations. In Singapore, its three-floor Centrepoint store wound up in 2019, before the bookstore chain ceased operations in Marina Square and Paragon in 2021, its woes compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kinokuniya Singapore, for instance, sells merchandise such as Sonny Angels, a line of tiny cherub dolls popular among Gen Z, and in 2023 launched a Studio Ghibli pop-up. “Every sales channel is increasingly precious,” it said. “This will adversely affect the accessibility of Singapore literature to our local community and the ability of our publishers to find readers.”
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