Singapore Expats

Gutted. I'm going to miss the choice of French goods they always used to stock at both stores and reasonable prices compared to their competitors. Just bought a load of rose champagne at SG34 a bottle. It's not Bolly but perfectly drinkable. If you believe the paper talk then Giant seem favourites to pick up the leases. Great ! The chain where none of the staff smile; there is wildlife living in the store (Turf City) and their seafood looks so unappetising that I doubt a starving penguin would shop there !

Travailes wrote:Gutted. I'm going to miss the choice of French goods they always used to stock at both stores and reasonable prices compared to their competitors. Just bought a load of rose champagne at SG34 a bottle. It's not Bolly but perfectly drinkable. If you believe the paper talk then Giant seem favourites to pick up the leases. Great ! The chain where none of the staff smile; there is wildlife living in the store (Turf City) and their seafood looks so unappetising that I doubt a starving penguin would shop there !

Won't feel too sad to see Carrefour gone, but won't be jubilant either. While their stock is generally okay, I don't like what I see at the spots where they sell prepared food (bread, deli, seafood).

Giant is just as bad, if not worse.

Cold Storage is still better than both but that comes with higher price tag.

Too bad... I am not aware of any Walmart or Target like alternatives in Singapore.

no big loss there. went to the one in singapore, didnt find anything useful there that i couldnt get elsewhere. went to china, and it was basically the same thing.

one thing i do wonder is, if they ever made money in sg. im taking that they didnt because if they did there would be no reason to shut shop.

I tend to agree with sensei_ I've never been overly impressed the few times I've gone into them. While I don't think they were losing money, as they put it, they didn't see themselves as being able to penetrate further against Dairy farm and NTUC, or at least to propel them into a leading market share. So I reckon they don't want presence in countries that lower their world wide profit margins.

Reports say it's because Carrefour is reeling from the European crisis and such.

nakatago wrote:Reports say it's because Carrefour is reeling from the European crisis and such.

Haha, yeah..... you can't believe that one.

They've been trying to sell up long before the European crisis started coming to a head, here and Malaysia.

Honestly though, I think it is too much effort here for not enough return. Plain and simple. SMS is right, the margins here probably bring down their worldwide average and whilst they compete with Giant and NTUC here, they compete with Giant and Tesco in Malaysia and in both cases they come in third.

ScoobyDoes wrote:

nakatago wrote:Reports say it's because Carrefour is reeling from the European crisis and such.

Haha, yeah..... you can't believe that one.

They've been trying to sell up long before the European crisis started coming to a head, here and Malaysia.

Honestly though, I think it is too much effort here for not enough return. Plain and simple. SMS is right, the margins here probably bring down their worldwide average and whilst they compete with Giant and NTUC here, they compete with Giant and Tesco in Malaysia and in both cases they come in third.

That's why I said reeling...

As i mentioned already earlier on a similar topic here:
The Singa market is too tiny for anybody of the big players to come in.
A controlled market will allow only local business to explore it.
But of course, you can further dream of the Wallys and Tescos dropping into such a tiny market.

So maybe there will be no "the biggest in the world" hypermarket in Singapore???
Oh this is really bad- lah

Walmart - Save us !!!!!
Not sure what the locals will make of their customers...

ps - Don't watch at work or everyone will wonder why you are on the floor laughing !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvxNgdFeWqM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv ... tdBo8&NR=1

franky-MS wrote:So maybe there will be no "the biggest in the world" hypermarket in Singapore???
Oh this is really bad- lah

Singapore Inc says "Challenge accepted!"

Note: Come on they already made the world's largest observation wheel, became world's largest oil-rig producer and world's biggest ship refuelling centre, world's second-biggest casino gambling market, world's best day zoo. What else they cannot do?

What they say & what pundits say often a different story, yeah?

Travailes wrote:Walmart - Save us !!!!!
Not sure what the locals will make of their customers...

ps - Don't watch at work or everyone will wonder why you are on the floor laughing !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvxNgdFeWqM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv ... tdBo8&NR=1

I love it. Saw it last year some time. (The initial one)

Walmart, don't think so. K-mart opened a couple of stores here, lasted around 2 years and closed up shop as well back in '96.

the lynx wrote:Note: ...What else they cannot do?

teach their people to have a brain. you know basic stuff like not standing in front of train doors

sensei_ wrote:

the lynx wrote:Note: ...What else they cannot do?

teach their people to have a brain. you know basic stuff like not standing in front of train doors

They have brains ("one of the best educational system in the world.")

What they devote all those cognitive processes for is a different story.