X-Boundaries, a retail shop that sells travelling items, took to Facebook on Tuesday (17 November) to share that it has not been paying rent for its store at Novena Square since August this year so that it can afford to pay salaries to its employees.
The company, which carries brands like MontBell, IceBreaker, BioLite and more, added that it believes that its staff need their wages more than the landlord needs its rent.
“We have not been paying rental since Aug 2020. We prefer to reserve our cash for our staff salaries. We believe that our staff needs the salaries WAY MORE than the landlord needs out rent,” the retail shop stated.
In the post, X-Boundaries also included a picture of its stores at the mall last year. The one-stop travel store also shared its journey in Singapore – from creating an outdoor strip in the mall to moving brands under its label to different location as the landlord wanted to increase the rent.
“We created an outdoor strip in the mall and maintained for about 2 years. From the left, we had mono-brand shop Montbell Singapore from Japan. Next to it was X-Boundaries, a multi-brand outdoor shop. Right at the end, we took over a small corner of a Thai restaurant and run Icebreaker Merino SG store.
“We moved Montbell Singapore into X-Boundaries because UOL wanted an increase of 25% rent. Icebreaker store was moved to another location because UOL wanted an increase of 100%. Thankfully, with unforeseen karmic management in action, we didn’t accept the increase,” it said.
The company also urged the public to support them and buy their products, which are mostly selling below costs, so that their staff can be paid.
“Many of our products are selling below costs now. We want to ensure our staff are duly rewarded even if we were to force to close,” it said, urging members of the public to Like and Share their post.
“We live for a purpose. We live for a better world. We are your partner in adventure, hopefully for a long time to come,” X-Boundaries said.
The store is now having massive clearance sale, and all their apparels and winter gears are selling for 70 percent below retail price.
