THE ROLE OF SUBURBAN SHOPPING CENTRE IN RELATION TO SHOPPING MALLS IN ORCHARD ROAD - CASE STUDY OF LOT ONE

Abstract

The last few years saw a downturn in the retail industry. However, despite this, a silver lining appeared in the form of suburban shopping centres. These are in fact the new generation suburban shopping centres. These shopping centres are mainly located within new towns and are sited near MRT stations. Lot One Shopping Mall was one of these new generation suburban shopping centres located next to Choa Chu Kang MRT station This study examines whether the shoppers could do their basic shopping at Lot One and to what extent those shopping centres in Orchard Road Area can be substituted by this type of retail development. The study also determines the types of features that these new generation suburban shopping centres should have in order to be more successful since shoppers would be the ultimate users. The survey findings found that shoppers could do their basic shopping at Lot One. However, they may still need to travel to Orchard Road Area when they need to get some shopping goods such as branded clothing, entertainment activities etc. From the survey, more than 50 per cent of the shoppers would still go to Orchard Road for at least once a month. The main purpose of going to Orchard Road was to meet up with their friends or to buy something or for entertainment activities. On the other hand, they would go to Lot One for some basic shopping such as for groceries, food and movies etc. From the survey, about 47 per cent of the shoppers rated the tenant mix of Lot One Shopping Mall as only satisfactory. More than 50 per cent of them felt that Lot One is not a good substitute of those shopping malls found in Orchard Road. Besides a good location, other features such as provision of a wide variety of goods and services at reasonable price, cleanliness of the shopping mall, complementary facilities linked to the shopping centre and provision of restaurants and food court are important in order for them to attract shoppers.