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The reopening of Jewel Changi Airport on 14 June 2021 on Monday morning saw light foot traffic at the mall, but retailers remain optimistic.
Jewel Changi Airport’s reopening on Monday (14 June 2021) saw only a small crowd, reported Channel News Asia (CNA).
Jewel and the passenger terminals at the airport have been closed to the public in May after the emergence of COVID-19 cases among airport workers.
At around 12pm, about ten customers were waiting for the airport’s Rich & Good Cake Shop outlet to open for business.
“(The crowd) is actually slightly more than what we expected, we were expecting it to be totally empty because dine-in is still not allowed,” said Jerelyn Foo, Media and Operations Manager at Rich & Good Cake Shop.
“But it’s definitely less compared to what we had before the closure,” she added as quoted by CNA.
Food delivery riders and customers were also seen waiting in line inside burger chain Shake Shack, which usually have long queues during peak hours.
CNA also saw a handful of moviegoers coming in and out of Shaw Theatres Jewel.
“It’s a typical Monday morning, so obviously it’s quite quiet,” said Shaw Organisation Director Mark Shaw, as quoted by CNA.
“We’re just really happy to be open and we expect, hopefully, with some decent marketing from Jewel and our team, as well as some of the bigger Hollywood blockbusters coming online in the next couple of weeks, that business will pick up,” he added.
Luxury watch retailer Sincere Watch, on the other hand, was largely empty.
“I’m not surprised because it’s just the first day of reopening and consumers just got to know about this so it will take time for them to gain confidence to come back to the mall and spend again,” Sincere Watch’s Senior Operations Manager Kenneth Tan told CNA.
Jewel revealed on Monday (14 June) that it will extend the full rental waiver until 20 June. The waiver was previously offered only for the period of the mall’s closure.
Jewel also shared that tenants will receive rental “assistance” between 21 and 27 June, without specifying the amount of assistance to be provided.
Tenants welcomed the additional support since it would take some time before mall shoppers return.
“I expect that it will take a month or two to have the business back on track… but we’re quite positive about the sales going back to what we used to have, especially when the dine-in resumes,” Shake Shack Singapore Director of Operations Cami Soh told CNA.
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Cheryl Chiew, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this story, email: cheryl@propertyguru.com.sg
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