CASE STUDY OF CHANGES MADE BY HDB SHOP TENANTS IN CLEMENTI NEW TOWN CENTRE

Abstract

Today's HDB-shops face stiff competition from downtown and suburban shopping centres. Keen competition in the retail industry is threatening the survival of these small HDB-shops. It is the aim of this study to ascertain how HDB-shops are changing in face of such competition. To do this, the study uses Clementi Town Centre as a case study and looks at the changes made by the HDB-shop-tenants there in the past five years to upgrade their businesses. The survey was designed to determine which of the HDB-shop-tenants have made changes in the following areas of improvement: (1) renovation; (2) layout and display; (3) increase in operating hours; (4) improvement in information technology; (5) increase in variety of goods/services; (6) participation in co-operative to practise bulk purchase. It was found that HDB-shop-tenants are not making much changes to upgrade their businesses. It was also observed that different trade groups respond differently to upgrading, with shops that have identified downtown and suburban shops as the major source of competition being more likely to upgrade.