Aunty Lucy warehouse sale.. stolen ideas from mustafa? A forgotten past?

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapo...ices-warehouse


Consumers who like to buy big and pay less can now do so at a mega retail store set up specifically for that purpose.

Supermarket chain FairPrice has opened a membership-only retail warehouse for groceries and household goods, where products are sold in bulk at discounts of up to 20 per cent.

The two-storey, 80,000 sq ft store, named Warehouse Club, stocks more than 4,000 products, including fresh and frozen food, health and beauty products, as well as electronics. It also carries popular house-brand items from major supermarket chains overseas, such as Carrefour.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapo....UJbFJgYq.dpuf

http://hudcsingapore.com/mustafa/str...se-for-retail/

Straits Times: $10k fine for using warehouse for retail
Posted on April 1, 2010 by Sherry Tang in Mustafa, warehouse

Apr 1, 2010
MUSTAFA IN TROUBLE
$10k fine for using warehouse for retail
It illegally used first two floors of Kallang Pudding building as department store, supermarket
By Leow Si Wan

POPULAR retailer Mustafa was fined $10,000 yesterday, after it pleaded guilty to illegally using its six-storey warehouse building in Kallang Pudding Road for retail sales.

The fine caps a saga which began last November, when the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) served a writ of summons on Mustafa for converting the first two levels of its warehouse into a department store and a supermarket.

These retail spaces have since been shut down.

In a statement yesterday, the URA said Mustafa had committed an offence under the Planning Act, which is punishable by a fine of up to $200,000.

A spokesman for the authority said: ‘Warehouses are approved primarily for the storage of goods and as a central distribution centre. They should not be used for… the retailing of merchandise, which is considered a commercial use.’

The URA added, however, that ‘some flexibility’ would be exercised for occasional warehouse sales conducted to clear stock.

Mustafa had, with the approval of the URA in 2001, developed the Kallang Pudding warehouse on a 58,400 sq ft freehold site it owned.

Save for the occasional sale, the warehouse was closed to the public until about October last year, when the shutters went up to reveal a department store on the ground floor and a supermarket on the second.

Competitors were upset that Mustafa was getting away with operating a retail store while paying low warehouse rents.

Asked yesterday why it took more than four months and repeated adjournments for Mustafa to plead guilty, its lawyer, Mr Bala Chandran, said several representations were made because this was the retailer’s first such offence.

He added the warehouse had stopped sales soon after the authorities stepped in.

Mustafa’s managing director, Mr Mustaq Ahmad, declined comment when contacted yesterday.

The retailer has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons recently. Yesterday’s fine, for example, comes a day after the court heard an application by the Singapore Civil Defence Force for Mustafa Centre in Little India to temporarily stop business on the first floor.

The move came amid concerns about over-crowding at the shopping centre.

Warehouse operators and retail experts interviewed said Mustafa’s conviction served as a ‘clear signal’ that warehouses should not be used for retail purposes.

Ms Frances Chow, a supervisor at wine distributor Excaliber in Aljunied, said warehouse operators who have carried out similar sales in the past now know ‘where the lines are drawn’.

Added Singapore Polytechnic senior retail and marketing lecturer Sarah Lim: ‘This will help prevent cases where warehouses are used for retail – which is unfair competition because warehouse rents are much lower.’


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