, Columnist
Giant Sucking Sound? That's Singapore Retail
The death of a department store, and an online rebirth, spell hard times for mall owners.
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The giant sucking sound building up in Singapore's empty shopping aisles just got louder. After a 174-year run, John Little, a well-loved department store, plans to shut down by January.
Completing the karmic circle of birth and death, Amazon.com Inc. may start operations in the city in the first quarter. That's scant comfort for retail landlords. A market capitalization-weighted index of five real-estate investment trusts, led by Capitaland Mall Trust, which counts John Little as a tenant in its Plaza Singapura mall, has dropped 7 percent so far this quarter. More trouble may be looming.