Kinokuniya Opens at Raffles City

Kinokuniya, the Republic's only remaining books-focused megachain, opened its third outlet at Raffles City mall on the morning of July 18.

- Clement Yong

The celebratory occasion bucked prevailing trends of bookshop closures amid laments of declining book-buying habits. The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the "hidden literary haven", designed by award-winning architect Tan Kay Ngee, took place weeks before its initial scheduled date of August and immediately welcomed about 30 patrons.

Kinokuniya vice-president of domestic and overseas business Keijiro Mori said Singapore may be more digitalised than other countries, but trends away from screens in Britain and the United States offer hope.

"I'm confident this will come to Singapore," he added. "Meanwhile, we have to try to include more non-book items. But we will try to keep these book-related. We don't want to become a general miscellaneous store."