BHG Downsizes Flagship Outlet as Department Stores Face Shaky Future

Such stores here and worldwide are facing decline due to competition from e-commerce

- Chin Soo Fang

Department store BHG is downsizing its flagship Bugis Junction outlet — its last remaining permanent store — from three to two levels.

This follows the March closure of its Junction 8 store, which will be replaced by home furnishings brand Nitori. Nitori, along with Japanese brand Muji, will also take over the third-floor space BHG used to occupy at Bugis Junction.

The scaling down of BHG's Bugis Junction outlet comes on the back of other store closures. Besides Junction 8, it has shuttered four stores here since 2022, in Raffles City Shopping Centre, Jurong Point, Clementi Mall and Lot One.

It follows a series of other closures of large department stores here.

"BHG remains a tenant at Bugis Junction on Levels 1 and 2, and we continue to work closely with them to introduce new brands," said a spokesperson for Bugis Junction. BHG declined comment.

In February, BHG opened a pop-up store at The Centrepoint, which will operate until August.

BHG Singapore began in 1994 as Seiyu Wing On Department Store. In 2007, it was acquired by Beijing Hualian Group, one of China's largest commercial chain retailers, and has operated under the brand name BHG for the past 18 years.

Homemaker Brenda Thio, 53, said: "It is sad that these stores that have been around for so long are either gone or downsized."

But she said she mainly shops online now. "I hardly shop at BHG and have bought only pillows, bolsters or bed sheets there once every few years."

A BROADER TREND OF DECLINE

Large department stores here and worldwide have faced decline owing to increasing competition from online shopping, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Japanese chain Isetan will shutter its Tampines Mall outlet in November, after about 30 years.