The demise of Singapore's First Hypermarket
A look during its final day of operation in Singapore
In memory of Singapore's First Hypermarket - Carrefour Suntec City Mall
And the story continues...
Some 20 years ago in the late 1990s, the thought of having a hyper supermarket (or hypermart in short) in a small city state like Singapore seemed doomed for failure. Even our home-grown supermarket leader did not believe in this concept at that time.
Just in case you have no idea what a hypermart is, it is basically just a normal supermarket combined with a departmental store where customers can shop for their groceries and other things such as electronic appliances, clothings, toys etc, albeit less variety than a standalone department store and they usually occupy a larger retail space too.
Lo and behold in 1997, French retailer Carrefour became the first to introduce the concept of a hypermart in Singapore and opened its first store in Suntec City Mall. It then opened its 2nd store at Plaza Singapura.
Not long after in 2000, Giant (another supermarket retailer) followed suit. Fairprice entered the hypermart market in 2007 under the branding of "Fairprice Xtra".
I had fond memories of shopping at Carrefour Suntec. The very long travellator at the very end of the store of each level, the CD section with CD players and headphones for customers to try out the different albums. Each small section was like a mini department store specialising in their own niche. I can spend half a day there without actually spending a dime!
The long travellator inside the supermarket between level 1 and level 2 near the groceries area.
Books section on level 2.
Cashier at level 1 seen from the escalator.
However all good things eventually came to an end in 2012 when Carrefour officially exited the Singapore market and in the Southeast Asia region.
While I did not have the capacity to stop Carrefour from exiting Singapore, the only thing that I could do was to equip myself with my powerful 8 megapixel phone camera in year 2012 (which was actually a Galaxy S2) and headed down to snap some photos during its final day of operation.
Below are some of the photos that I have taken and I hope it does bring back some good memories among us.
Frozen displays on level 1.
Price checker installed around the supermarket.
Fruits section at level 1.
Bicycle and sports section on level 2. Most of the items were cleared for closing down.
Toys section just opposite the bicycle section.
The electronics section on level 2 where TVs, PCs and DVD players were sold with a service counter.
Home appliances section just beside the electronics section.
Another side of the home appliances section.
Most of the goods were cleared and area cordoned off.
And that's all folks! Hope this post have revived some of your good old memories and shopping experiences at Carrefour Singapore at Suntec City!
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