Metro Department Store at Centrepoint to close its doors permanently next month

After operating for five years at The Centrepoint, Metro Department Store is all set to close its flagship store at the mall next month.
Prior to Metro’s announcement, other tenants like Times Bookstore and TianPo Jewellery also revealed that they will be leaving the 36-year-old mall after they put up their own moving out sales. Besides these big names, there are also at least eight other vacant units at different parts of the mall.
Metro’s spokesman told The Straits Times (ST) that it has no plans to renew its lease at Centrepoint. This means that the outlets at Paragon and Causeway Point will be the only two outlets of Metro operating in Singapore.
“In recent years, Metro has been rationalising its retail business in response to changing market conditions..Metro continues to focus on its core businesses of retail in Singapore and Indonesia, together with property investment and development,” the spokesman explained.
Clearance sales up to 85% was advertised at the store, and staff mentioned that the outlet’s last day will be on 15 September, ST reported. If that is not all, the staff are also uncertain if they would be asked to work in the other two stores.
When asked on why Metro has decided to leave the mall, retailers and sales staff told that they believe this is possibly due to the low traffic at the mall.
In addition, Crystal Jade Kitchen who also left The Centrepoint recently said that although business was “performing to expectations”, but they have decided to move out of the mall in an attempt to explore other locations as they want to reach a different audience. The restaurant will soon be seen at Funan mall in the last quarter of the year.
In response to this situation, the spokesman for The Centrepoint mentioned that it wants to introduce “experiential retail concepts with new lifestyle offerings”, which resonates with the plan to make Somerset precinct as a youth hub.
With the mix in tenants, it will have a new anchor tenant with “an immersive and experiential concert”, and new products and experiences as well as co-working services, it said to ST. However, it noted that details on this will be made public on a later date.