A netizen sparked a debate online after sharing that they find themselves “bored” of the eateries from China in Singapore malls.
The Original Poster’s (OP) Reddit post on 10 Aug prompted netizens to consider whether there is truly an overabundance of businesses from China, and if there is a way to resolve the “boredom” the OP is facing.
In the post titled ‘Too many china food in shopping malls!’, the OP, referred as Ms Tan, asked Chinese netizens if they “feel bored” of seeing “at least eight restaurants” from China in local shopping malls.
According to her, this number includes stalls in food courts.
In an exclusive with MS News, Ms Tan said that the shock came after realising that the neighbourhood malls and shop houses are “filled with China brand franchise”, with “exact same brand foods”.
Source: Hank on Pexels, for illustration purposes only
She observed that other variety cuisines, including Japanese restaurants, are getting replaced by the “Si Jia Le”, or Scarlett Supermarket, court dining concept.
“Some shopping malls used to have more variety of different cuisines as Singapore is a big melting pot of different races.” she shared.
In the post, Ms Tan said that while Mala and other Chinese food “taste great sometimes”, they feel disappointed when other businesses have to close down to make way for these new establishments.
Source: Marcus Winkler on Pexels, for illustration purposes only
“What happened to my local Korean fried chicken Jjinja and Nene Fried Chicken?” Ms Tan wrote.
She later added that she saw “some China deli bowl express”, which she thought was “disappointing”.
Speaking to MS News, she shared the source of her disappointment, “Chinese deli bowl replaced my fav Korean fried chicken fast food joint Nene Chicken!”
Source: @nenechickensg on Instagram
In response to Ms Tan’s post, netizens offered different perspectives to the issue.
Some netizens agree about feeling disappointed by the direction taken by local malls.
One commenter shared feeling “quite sad” when the Thai Express outlet at Ang Mo Kio was replaced.
Meanwhile, another netizen expressed their distaste in the trend as they believe these businesses have made “absolutely no attempt to localise”.
Source: TikTok
However, some disagreed with Ms Tan, claiming it is a good change to the mall scenery.
Source: Reddit
Other netizens also pointed out that the trend is simply a reflection of consumer behaviour.
Commenters observed that some of the local businesses have lost traction, with diners in Singapore preferring Chinese food instead.
Source: Reddit
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Featured image adapted from Markus Winkler and Shlok Rana on Pexels.