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4D/Toto/Score

  October retail sales totalled S$1.82 billion, up from S$1.77 billion in September, according to statistics released by the Department of Statistics yesterday. Sales of telecommunications equipment and computers registered the biggest jump of 27.6 per cent, while furniture and household equipment sales went up by about 13 per cent compared with the previous month's sales. (Straits Times 17 Dec 2002) (1)

  LevelOne, a collection of 106 small retail space modelled after Japan's fashionable Shinjuku and Harajuku fashion districts, has opened in Far East Plaza. The S$8 million project, started by the building's landlord Far East Organisation (FEO), occupies some 45,000 sq ft ground-floor space vacated by department store Metro in June. (Straits Times 9 Dec 2002) (A15)

  The old Goods & Services Tax (GST) of 3 per cent will be charged until 7am on 1 Jan 2003 when the new 5-per-cent rate comes into effect. The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) said yesterday it was making this concession to businesses that operate after midnight. (Straits Times 8 Nov 2002) (H14)

  People who bought CashCards in 1998 or before that year should check the expiry dates of the cards as these cards are valid for five years only. Card owners can log on to nets.com.sg or call NETS at 65-6274 1322 to check when their cards expire. They will be able to get a full refund on the remaining balance, plus deposit, for up to two years after the card expires. From 2003, all new CashCards will have the date of issue printed on them to make it easier for users to keep track. (Straits Times 4 Nov 2002) (H3)

  Harvey Norman celebrates 1st birthday in Singapore

  FairPrice, Singapore's No. 1 supermarket chain, runs 36 Cheers outlets, a 24-hour convenience- store store concept it launched in 1999. It aims to have 100 outlets in the next few years and will farm out franchises for 80 per cent of them. The chain recently signed its first franchisee to run a Cheers outlet in Hougang Street 91. (Straits Times 23 Oct 2002) (4)

  Tattoo shops here are registered like beauty centres, but are not regulated by health authorities. There are also no age restrictions, unlike in some countries where the minimum age to have a tattoo done ranges from 16 to 21. The Health Ministry here steps in only if it receives a complaint. There are about 30 tattoo shops here. (Straits Times 23 Sep 2002) (H7)

  A 10-member committee has proposed measures to make it easier for consumers to take traders to court for dishonest business practices that range from advertising false closing-down sales to using high-pressure sales tactics. (Straits Times 26 Aug 2002) (1)

  Furniture retailer Ideal Home Living Center, opened five years ago, has closed its Suntec City store two months after 15 customer complaints criticising its services made the headlines here. Ideal Home is the latest of a string of local furniture retailers to flounder in the recession, after Pennsylvania House, Homestead Furniture and Actus, all of which had closed their stores in the last 16 months. (Straits Times 21 Aug 2002) (H1)

  Singapore shoppers will be able to use their Nets card in Malaysia by late 2003. Nets and its Malaysian counterpart, the Malaysian Electronic Payment System (Meps) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to link their nationwide electronic payment systems. (Straits Times 15 Aug 2002) (3)

  Four buildings along High Street are set to get a spanking new look by 2004. They are High Street Centre, High Street Plaza, Wisma Sugnomal, Amar Raj House and Satnam House. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has given them the green light to proceed with their refurbishment plans after a delay of more than a year. (Straits Times 22 Jul 2002) (A14)

  Giant electronic billboards, better known as video walls, are becoming more popular here. The largest, at Suntec, is 14m by 11m. Other places which have them are The Heeren (5m by 4m), Shaw Centre, Manchester United store at Orchard Parade Hotel, and Caltex House. The electronic billboards cost from $700,000 to a few million dollars. Free-standing billboards were banned in 1993 because they were considered a blight on the city's skyline. (Straits Times 6 Jul 2002) (H1) 

  The Majestic, a former Chinatown cinema, will reopen later this year as a three-storey shopping mall at a cost of S$8 million. It marks Cathay Organisation's first foray into the retail business. The mall will retain the name of the cinema which closed in 1998 and has remained empty since. (Straits Times 3 Jul 2002)

  Japanese retailer Daimaru is closing all its three stores here by March 2003. Daimaru Singapore, which has been in Singapore for the past 19 years, turned in a profit of S$500,000 after a decade of losses. It said that 320 employees from its stores in Plaza Singapura in Orchard Road, Junction 8 in Bishan and Liang Court in River Valley, will be laid off. Daimaru is the fourth Japanese retailer to bow out of Singapore, after Sogo in 2000, Yaohan and Tokyu in 1998. Once it has gone, Singapore will have only three Japanese giants on the retail scene - Seiyu, Takashimaya and Isetan. (Straits Times 29 Jun 2002) (3)

  Ideal Home Living Center, a major furniture retailer at Suntec City, has been the target of consumer complaints over the past six months. Fifteen customers have complained to the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) about non-delivery, late delivery and defective items. At least three had taken their case to the Small Claims tribunal. (Straits Times 28 Jun 2002)

  Metro Far East Plaza Branch yesterday closed its doors after 19 years. Metro's four remaining stores are at Paragon Shopping Centre, Marina Square, Century Square and Causeway Point. Metro will open a new store in Sengkang in August 2002. (Straits Times 17 Jun 2002) (H6)

  Heartland Mall Kovan shopping centre and the surrounding 120 neighbourhood retailers woven around a hawker centre and a bus interchange will be managed as one big "complex" called Kovan City under the Government's first experiment at making mom-and-pop shops collaborate with trendy suburban malls. (Straits Times 15 May 2002) (H1)

  The Economic Review Committee (ERC) has proposed raising the Goods and Services Tax to 5 per cent from 3 per cent next year. It also proposes to slash both the maximum personal income-tax rate and corporate income-tax rate to just 20 per cent within three years. Currently, the top personal-tax rate is 26 per cent and company profits are taxed at 24.5 per cent. In its 90-page report, the ERC also suggested exempting from tax all interest earned on bank deposits as well as income from foreign sources. The Government will study the committee's proposals and respond in its Budget statement on May 3. (Straits Times 12 Apr 2002) (1)

  The sub-contractor responsible for the collapsed wall that killed a man at IMM Building in August 2000 was fined a total of S$40,000 yesterday. Yuong Cheong Construction was found guilty last week for two breaches of the Factories Act. (Straits Times 9 Apr 2002) (H2)

  A new office building - The Atrium@Orchard , located next to Plaza Singapura, will be completed by the end of the month. The complex has two office towers - 10 storeys high and six storeys high. In all, 359,000 sq ft of office space and 16,000 sq ft of retail space will be available. The Atrium and the new Dhoby Ghaut MRT interchange which is integrated with it cost its developer, Land Transport Authority (LTA), S$268 million. (Straits Times 6 Apr 2002) (H1)

  The sub-contractor for demolition works at IMM Building was yesterday found guilty of two charges of breaching the Factories Act over the hacking of a wall that collapsed and killed a man in August 2000. Yuong Cheong Construction (YCC) was engaged by main contractor Shimizu Corporation to do upgrading work on the first storey of the building. YCC will be sentenced next Tuesday. (Straits Times 5 Apr 2002) (H10) Collapse of wall at the IMM Building in Jurong on 11 Aug 2000

  The Fair Trading Act is expected to be ready within 15 months. Consumer Association of Singapore (Case) president YEO Guat Kwang said Case and the Trade and Industry Ministry (MTI) are in the "final stages of having the Act in place." He said the Act would, in principle, guard both merchants and consumers. (Straits Times 4 Apr 2002) (H1)

  There were 200 more cases of shoplifting last year, an 8-per-cent rise that brought the total to 2,600. Most of them took place in shopping centres and supermarkets. The number of young shoplifters dropped slightly from 1,147 in 2000 to 1,071 last year. (Straits Times 27 Mar 20020 (H8)

  Singapore's second Fashion Festival kicked off last night with 130 models and performers strutting their stuff in the latest streetwear at an outdoor show, The Hit Parade, at One Fullerton. Homegrown designers, absent from last year's event, were included this year. The number of international designer labels taking part has doubled from 15 to 36. (Straits Times 17 Mar 2002) (6)

  From Saturday, the stretch of Nicoll Highway between Merdeka Bridge and Ophir Road will be closed for two years as construction work on the first phase of the S$6.7 billion Circle MRT Line gets underway. By year-end, the last stretch of the underground City Link shopping mall, from City Hall to Suntec City, will be closed temporarily. Retail outlets will not be affected, but pedestrians will have to get out into the open from the underpass near Raffles Boulevard. Close to 2.2 million people visit Suntec City every month, said a Suntec City spokesman, adding that the construction works would cause great inconvenience to conference participants, shoppers and office tenants. (Straits Times 14 Mar 2002) (3)

  About 1,000 retailers in Nee Soon Central, Tampines West, Toa Payoh Centre, Bedok Town Centre, Hong Kah Point, Clementi Town, Kovan City in Hougang, and Marine Parade Central and Marine Terrace will take part in a month-long Heartland Shopping Surprise from today. Shoppers stand to win prizes, such as a Mitsubishi Spacewagon worth S$90,000 and three Mitsubishi Lancers worth S$50,000 each. (Straits Times 1 Dec 2001)(H3)

  The 17-year-old Promenade shopping centre in Orchard Road will be demolished and rebuilt as an extension of The Paragon, its next-door neighbour. The new shopping centre will be ready in 2003. (Straits Times 20 Nov 2001)(L3)

  The Turf City shopping mall will open its doors in the middle of November 2001 at the 56-ha site of the old Bukit Timah Turf Club. The 760,000sq ft Turf City building was created by linking together the two existing grandstands. (Straits Times 5 Nov 2001) (S12)

  New web-enabled AXS stations to replace ageing NETS kiosks in Singapore.

  From 1 Aug 2001, a new form of electronic payment - Nets Virtual Card - will allow a subscriber to make purchases at brick-and-mortar and online stores using his mobile phone. To settle his bill, a subscriber messages Nets his UserID and Personal Identification Number (PIN) for the virtual card, the amount due, the merchant's name and the bill number - all done on a mobile phone. To subscribe, a cell-phone user registers online at the Nets website, nets.com.sg, and will be given a UserID and a PIN. This card service is free for the first year. (Straits Times 9 Jul 2001) (H8)

  A new cashcard, Touch 'n Go Cashcard, will allow visitors to go cashless in Malaysia when paying toll fares for bridges, expressways, inter-city roads and fares for buses, trains and parking which use the new payment system. Here in Singapore, users can pay for purchases at retail outlets, vending machines, payphones, carparks and libraries. The card can also be used for Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges and online purchases. It will be launched in the next quarter by Network for Electronic Transfers (Nets) and Malaysian smart-card operator Rangkaian Segar Sdn Bhd (RSSB) (Straits Times 21 Jun 2001)

  The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) is investigating whether Courts megastore has been fair to its customers who ordered laptops at a price that the company quoted incorrectly on its website. Case told The Straits Times it was looking into the matter because it had received complaints from six shoppers after Courts decided not to fill their orders. They put in online orders for computers at S$279, just 10% of the actual price. (Straits Times 12 May 2001)