End of chapter for Page One bookstore

What a pity. I prefer reading books instead of ebooks, cos real books are nicer-looking and don't give me a headache from the screen glare and the UV rays emitted from the ebook device. I buy at least 1 book a month, but nowadays lots of pple prefer ebooks. I honestly don't understand why.

Singapore rentals are really blood-sucking, it's very high and gives a lot of stress to business owners. But honestly I don't know what the solution is--maybe the govt could build higher buildings so there's more rental space? Then rental cost will go down

wtf??? another bookstore closing? don't young people read books nowadays? for me, i still prefer to read from paperbacks instead of iPad or any e-book medium.

i think it's rather sad to see all these big book stores closing down. with ebooks getting more popular... but some of the titles in the bookstore are also rather expensive, leaving consumers unable to buy them...

Chances are that somebody offered higher.

Hope it is not NTUC...

They did better when they were smaller & more focused back in Marina Sq days...came back too big, too diverse...loss it's niche~

It's really crazy for the rental to be increased and caused the most of the shop to closed down. As this also the same with Jurong Point, their rental had also been increased very high , some of the shops had been given up their businesses. HARRIS Bookshop is another one of the shop that closed earlier. Well, it looks like doing businesses in Singapore are getting less attractive now as the rental increases is going to eat into their profits. Yes, it's senseless to see all the increases of the costs in Singapore at this uncertainty times ahead.... the owners are forcing many of the shops to set up outside Singapore.. maqny of the enterprises will now have to consider ouitside Singapore.

Indeed, it is high property prices which leads to high rentals which leads to failure of businesses which are at the mercy of landlords. Temasek is indeed one of the largest landlords thru its Mapletree Reits, Capitaland Group and Keppel Land Group. The government is advised to look into lowering property prices whether it is office, commercial, industry and residential. Businesses cannot sustain such high rentals.

It is because people are treating bookshops like public libraries. They read but do not buy the books/magazines. Cheapskates! Bookshops killers!!

Everyone complains about rent being too high and "what to do?". How about not signing the lease in the first place...do your research and plan the business better from day 1. Problem is, some other company will come in...pay the same or higher rent thinking they can actually make a profit without doing their homework and also fail. If businesses keep lining up to lose their shirts, the landlords would be stupid to drop rental rates...

Rental is so ridiculously high in Singapore. It's not surprising that they are making losses. Some landlords are really like robbers. Afterall the pricing that they quote to you is up to them. Demand and supply. And after a year or 2, if they want to increase the lease terms. What can you do???

PAP like to use the excuse that labour costs are too high to open the floodgate to foreign trashes to depress wages.

Rental is the real killer for many businesses not Singaporeans income but PAP won't tell you that as many properties in Singapore are owned by Temasek Holdings.

Nobody buy books anymore.

And in its place shall rise a classy European boutique outlet pedaling mass produced clothing from low cost factories in China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico etc, or a fancy restaurant offering palm sized amounts of chow at premium prices.

Increasing rent, kills businesses. The more businesses thrive, the higher the rent.

Singapore's retails scene is already boringly dominated by big brands, most of which is available heart land malls, now we losing a bookshop that is famous for creative interesting books... sign... What a pity!

I just hope the empty lot will not be replaced by some crappy pawn shops. Another H&M will be nice....

What to do?? The landlord needs to pay their CEO out of the world salaries mah. So like SMRT, must adopt "Income Opportunity" culture and slaughter their tenants.

They should open at Bras Basah Complex.

A home-grown book retailer, ironically can't affort it's rental on it's home-ground.."Rental proved too high." Well... i guess everyone knew that for a long long time except our govt who were still asleep...,

Eventually all home-grown companies will be driven out because they cannot afford the high rents as locals are being squeezed out.