Singapore no. 2 behind South Korea?
How can?
We must beat them so we can be no. 1!
Just like how we retook Changi Airport back as the no.1 airport in the world from their Incheon Airport. No?
Yes, I am using sarcasm.
I remember when I was in primary school, there were loads of busses ferrying factory workers wearing their lttle blue dresses in and out of Singapore.
That's ancient history...
I also remember fondly those small little POSB branches that were located in HDB estates. They have only 2-3 tellers. And the black thumb prints when withdrawing money!
Now fast food outlets and supermarkets we have self-ordering and self-payment machines.
And we can order almost anything online to be delivered to our door. How convenient!
One day, I guess shopping centres will only retail services that cannot be replaced online like food, hairstyling, spas or gyms, and tuition centres that sort of thing...
I was actually quite confident brick-and-mortar retailing will still survive in Singapore - that's until I leanred there are people who actually order shoes online!?
Now my confidence has been shattered...
The pin no prick you no pain.
Its easy to make decisions on rank-and-file sheep when you're a shepherd.
That's until landowners are able to find a robo shepherd to replace you!
Days of Transformers are coming!
ReplyDeleteCW,
DeleteMoney is just a means to and end. An euphemism.
What we really want is the freedom to decide for everyone else but ourselves!
Brick and motor shoe business retail stores still relevant .. just that people may choose to visit the store to try the shoes then later choose to buy it cheaper online..
ReplyDeleteThe Sun,
DeleteWelcome to this watering hole!
Yes, I am keenly aware of this practice you described since I work in retail during the weekends ;)
Lucky there are still customers who don't mind paying a bit more for good service! Like me, they practice TIP (To Insure Performance).
I used to be as confident as you. Now not so sure anymore....
Its not just the number of retail store closures and bankruptcies in US due to the Amazon effect.
I've talked to quite a few customers who are "addicted" to ordering stuffs online.
It starts with the cheap stuffs, then slowly they migrate to the bigger ticket items - even buying flooring tiles or lightings from China and savings thousands on their home renovations!
For dinosaurs like me, we need brick-and-mortar stores. But when I look at kindergarten children playing with smart phones, they certainly have no legacy baggages like me!
...Your post made me google for Kimco Realty's latest earnings. Spas, salons, massage parlours, and gyms are less likely to be disrupted?
ReplyDeleteBut they feel the pain too. =/
Unintelligent Nerd,
DeleteWould you go to a shopping centre if there were only restaurants, clinics, spas, salons, cinemas, etc?
In Singapore, probably yes if the shopping centres are within walking distance!
But in America and Europe, would you drive 2 hours to visit such a mega store that only retail services? No merchandise retailing whatsoever?
Hence the pain and ghost shoping malls in US...
In the past, services retailing normally makes up around 1/3 of a shopping centre's space.
Now? I see its 50/50.
Visit 321 Clementi or Bedok Point, what do you see?
Shops that retail actual merchandise are in the minority.
Smol,
ReplyDeleteAdopt a free-willed attitude. You will feel better. Another way is to go to other countries with the brick and motor type of lifestyle in the present day.
You do not need to look far for such alternatives. It's always good to have options.
Ben
Ben,
DeleteI am out of the matrix.
But I do feel a bit of guilt as sins of my past will catch up with me one day...
15 years ago, I was part of the change management team that evangelised the benefits of working towards a process driven organisation.
All this while I knew its just to lay the ground work for us to rollout an ERP system that can do away with 1/4 to 1/3 of our headcounts.
Old wine in new bottle. Now we call it robo or AI.
In the corporate world, when shepherds mouth something like - quicker, better, cheaper - stay alert!
It meant replacing you with a machine :(
Smol,
DeleteYou have no concern and out of the wood. AI or no AI. It does not concern you.
Ben
Yes lar, Me also ordered my shoes online. Cheap and good. Last week i also went orchard to buy down jacket. Usually the more expensive stuff like mattress and stuff need to physically try it out first.
ReplyDeleteBut the writing on the wall is there. Pull out all investment on shopping Reits!
WolfT,
DeleteI've always said the best way to buy shoes is put our own feet in to try if they fit.
Poking fun at those who trust the "measuring tape" over their own feet ;)
Its people like you that made me think twice now...
I mean if you dare to buy shoes without first trying them on, then anything else can be bought online too!!!
There was a time we have lots of music record and cassette shops. Now everyone either streams or download songs online.
Its not just writing on the wall; the grim reaper is already visiting industry by industry...
Akan datang.
First pair of shoes I bought online didn't really fit. But they also made me realise (and study up on) the differences when comparing sizes between countries, how to judge width, material, etc.
DeleteBy the time I got my 2nd pair, it's perfect. ;)
And then, there are those who walk into a shop to try and then place an order online, walking out of the store empty handed. But the merchants know and hence, there is omni-channel marketing strategy. They walk in, they are given a voucher that expires in 48 hours.
Patty,
DeleteYou too?
Ah! Those one generation behind me have embraced the online shopping world ;)
So its old fogey like me that are keeping the brick-and-mortar retailers alive like we do for hard copy newspapers.
I still buy the chinese newspapers for mom, but I get most of my news online.
Also, I don't watch TV nowadays. Its youtube.
So even I am pivoting to the online world!!!
20 years.
The 2000 dot.com hype - promises and skepticism - are now reality today with Taobao and Amazon. With foodpanda and honestbee. With Grab and Uber. With Netflix and Youtube.
It will be interesting to live another 20 years and see what the future will look like when the present smart phone savvy kindergarden kids grew up ;)
I hope at the time I have not bought-and-held "Kodak" like stocks in my portfolio!
Well, when Dyson starts making cars in S'pore, our robot stats will go up a bit, haha!
ReplyDeleteLast couple of years JP Morgan (and I suspect Goldman too) has quite a big dept doing R&D with AI trading with super computers --- the interesting thing is that not only are the programs self-aware and self-learning, but they also can self-generate new code, essentially giving them the power of evolution and ability to "birth" new generations of improved versions.
I bet the team of PhD computer scientists working on this are demanding high enough salaries so that when they are replaced by AI in 5-10 years time, they will be set for life.
Soon the whole life cycle will be automated --- design, birth, testing, rollout, maintenance, repair, learning, assimilation, birth to next generation, death/replacement/scrap. Robots & AI doing it themselves without human intervention. ;)
Of course much easier in virtual systems. Much harder for physical robots & systems. Self-learning in autonomous vehicles have improved a lot but still not as flexible as humans ... still need to operate in well-defined environments & conditions.
BTW, I do buy shoes online haha. Especially for cheaper working shoes back when I was still working (8-10 yrs ago).
Also running shoes from big name brands ... their sizing tends to remain the same over the years. Same goes for "branded" clothes although some minor differences depending on country/factory of manufacture & target market.
Spur,
DeleteI think that's a major coup by Singapore with Dyson!
Its fantastic Singapore still has a foot into manufacturing :)
I don't think we should go the way of Hong Kong where they have moved all manufacturing into China and focused on services.
When computers start to beat Chess masters, I shrugged. But when computers start to beat Go masters, I knew change is coming sooner than I thought...
Not you too?
OK, I'm the laggard at this watering hole :(
LOL!
Well, at least when it comes to media consumption, I'm no longer into our nation building media like print and TV.
And that is a headache for big daddy.
I suspect that's why they brought back dialect speaking radio and TV. Better hang on and reach out to their base - the old fogeys!
There are 2 typEs of disruption.
ReplyDelete1) creative destruct everything of former, like kodak film, CDs etc.
2) then there is The type that emerge from emerging to becomes mainstream and thenmainstream adapt a bit and the emerging ills become obvious.
I believe retail belong to the later, until e commerce has some way to go before domainant and retail.not really kena hit hard yet.
Direct B2C is what dell did with great success in its initial.years.
Sometime cooking of slow frog due to demographic of people with baggage like u and me
There is a reason why alibababa and Amazon went from cloud then to brick and mortal
But I stay clear of retail REIT too. Just that I dun think it will be a dinosaur
Sillyinvestor,
DeleteRetail has always been evolving and changing with the times.
Big mega stores and 24 hours convenience store chains have displaced the neighbourhood mom and pop stores.
Yes, they are still around but once the owners retires, their next generation won't take over...
Same goes for wet markets. Queenstown got lots of old folks so still can survive, but most of the stalls are empty and relying on their old regular customers...
Hard to compete with Sheng Siong and NTUC with their 24 hours convenience and lower prices due to economies of scale :(
The same goes for e-commerce.
Brick-and-mortar retailing will still be needed for the high end stuffs - would anyone want to buy a Rolex watch or LV bag online? Really?
Orchard Road will make a comeback.
As for suburbia malls, I don't see them going away anytime soon. In fact I see them going from strength to strength with their transition to services retailing - clinics, tuition centres, spas, restaurants, cinemas, food courts, etc.
You think why we have libraries in shopping centres?
Of course, provided we continue to have population growth ;)
Don't jump the gun!
Jump when we see our population declining ;)
Hi Jared,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you have tried out buying stuff online. I get the impression that you have been talking to people who have done that but have not really done that yourself. If haven't try, try it out yourself. You will have an even deeper appreciation why so many younger folks have switched to buying stuff online. I bet you will become a convert yourself.
I have bought shoes online, T-shirts online, working shirts online, rice online, engineers' toys like electronic development kits online, laundry detergent online ...
hyom hyom,
DeleteBesides internet banking and trading online, I've only embraced booking of flights and accommodations online. And ordering Dell PCs and laptops online.
Oh! Plus renewing my Norton antivirus online!
Only time I've bought merchandise outside of the above online is when I was in Shanghai and had to order a book from Amazon.
Shanghai though cosmopolitan, is still hard for me to find a good bookstore with wide enough English collections...
I'm not a total dinosaur, but I do try to limit my purchases online.
I just prefer to enjoy the total brick-and-mortar retail experience! And the human interactions!
SMOL,
DeleteIn some ways, you're already more advanced than me. I have never bought a book online. Public libraries in Singapore are world-class. So, few Singaporeans really need to spend money buying books.
Online shopping has an unfair tax advantage over bricks-and-mortar shopping. No need to pay GST 7% for online purchases below SGD400. So, any online purchase below $400 already win by 7% in terms of pricing. I'm sure government will close this unfair gap soon. Got to protect their tax-paying "customers" more.
I buy heavy grocery items such as 5kg brown rice and laundry detergent online because they are delivered to the door. Cumbersome to carry them. Older folks can consider making online purchases for heavy items when age catches up and they're too pai-seh to ask for help from younger relatives. Mouse clicks are definitely easier than carrying 5kg rice.
hyom hyom,
DeleteI am lucky to have a supermarket within 15 minutes walk of my current and future flat ;)
I like to make small talk with the regular cashiers.
You are making recommendations from your own perspective as someone who is comfortable with computers ;)
You definitely have not shopped at a supermaket during the week days when seniors are more active ;)
Next time you free on weekdays, pop-in on days where we got senior citizen discounts. You'll be surprised how they solved the carrying of heavy stuffs home!
Lucky the retail shops do not share my narrow perspective. Come to think of it, no senior citizen that I know of are online shoppers. They will have a hard time adjusting if most bricks-and-mortar shops move to the cloud.
DeletePerhaps if I were to build a e-commerce website to attract customers like you to go online, I will add in a chatbox with a chiobu Avatar so that you can make small talk before making the purchase. Important thing is that the chiobu Avatar must be smart enough to fool the customer into thinking that he is chatting with a chiobu when the truth is that it is just an intelligent AI chatbot. Provide great customer experience at low cost! LOL.
hyom hyom,
DeleteThe Pioneer and Merdeka generations are still a big chunk of the population!
They are not golng away anytime soon ;)
There are still lots of business oportunities to cater to their needs - especially they are the ones with access to their CPF monies now ;)
Observe the number of schools that have merged or closed down?
Let's not get too excited about the future online retailing in Singapore either... Unless we have a baby boom ;)
Match these 2 observations, I can understand why they introduced CPF Life.
And the curious act of "working with" financial bloggers to "encourage" the voluntary contributions of CPF ;)
Hello, just go to Chinatown to see whether our seniors prefer AI chio bu or real life "mei mei" (auntie to 80 years old fogey is mei mei)!
LOL!
You'll be surprised how many seniors have maids. That's why I hinted you visit the supermarkets.
Young that time parents no time for children so shower their kids with toys to feel less guilty.
Now children big and well off, but no time for parents. So provide anything money can buy - maids, electric wheelchairs, attas nursing homes, etc.
Life has come full circle.
SMOL,
DeleteAlways good to hear from a different perspective to counter my narrow perspective which I do not even realize myself sometimes.
Talking about toys. I bought this computer game "Minecraft" at USD20++ for my kids many years ago. Didn't have to spend much money on new toys afterwards. This is because the game gets free version upgrades and the kids never ask for new toys as they don't get bored playing this game. Hopefully, when I am old, I can buy a cheap robotic maid myself and not burden my kids to pay for attas nursing homes. Perhaps I can even program this robotic maid to add customized features to my liking. Then sell the enhanced features to other old people at affordable price. Keep myself occupied with something useful in old age:)
Old jobs will be lost with new technology, but new jobs will be created as well. We just don't know how the future will look like but I am very confident that with technological advancement, the number of winners will exceed the number of losers over time.
hyom hyom,
Delete危机 - opportunities in adversities ;)
There's otaku blood in you! LOL!
I would prefer a real person over a robot anyday :)
SMOL,
DeleteI checked up the word "otaku" to find out what it means exactly. Guilty as charged! But that's not something to be proud of. An otaku engineer is pretty useless unless he pairs up with someone who can help him sell his good engineering product so that his good work does not go to waste.
If I'm a customer, I will prefer a real person over a robot too provided the human does not cost too much more than the robot. Humans have higher chance of fixing my problem.
If I were an employer, I will prefer a robot over a human if the job can be done by a robot. If a job can be done by a robot, it is probably too boring for a human and more importantly, prospects will be dim for this human worker. First, his wage gets depressed by cheaper robots, then he permanently loses his job. How to motivate such a human workforce? In fact, the "merciful" thing to do is to sack the human, compensate him fairly so that he has enough time to restructure himself before the robots take over. The seemingly kind, yet actually cruel thing to do is to protect the human job for as long as possible until it is impossible to resist the technological forces, then retrench him. By this time, the human is truly screwed because it is too late for him to reinvent himself. An exception should be made to old humans who are near retirement. They don't mind the dim career prospects anyway.
I am no stranger to losing job. I definitely understand how it feels but I appreciate former PM Goh's politically incorrect but hard-truth quote "If there is no retrenchment, then I worry".
hyom hyom,
DeleteYup.
In a nutshell, what you've said sums up nicely how a landowner would view robots differently from a sheep ;)
Not to worry about losing your weekend job. You don't need it anyway. There are still big-ticket items that people don't buy online. I won't buy kitchen appliances online. I buy refrigerators, washing machines and gas hobs from people like you. I don't feel comfortable buying stuff online if they are above a certain price, cause a lot of inconvenience if they are unreliable or if they are safety-critical. Better pay good money for these kind of stuff and don't go for cheap alternatives.
ReplyDeletehyom hyom,
DeleteOn the contrary, I'm very in demand as Singapoeans who are still willing to do retail sales are a dying breed.
The majority of retail sales you see today are mainly from Malaysia; next comes China and Philippines.
That's why big daddy is encouraging more retailers to embrace technology to boost productivity ;)
The carrot is giving of grants and subsidies; the stick is tightening the granting of work permits ;)
I?
I'm just observing to see what trends I can spot and jump on ;)