Takashimaya is opening a new store at Raffles City. Book lovers are rejoicing

Kinokuniya posted two notices at the window of NBC announcing the bookseller’s takeover of the unit

Since 2019, when Kinokuniya shuttered their first store in our island for good, it has been closures or downsizings for the Japanese bookseller. But this year, it’d be a little different. Although they recently shrank the size of their Takashimaya Shopping Centre space, they will be opening their first store in 12 years soon. Sited at the unit of the former NBC Stationery and Gift, a Takashimaya affiliate, on the third floor of Raffles City, the new outlet will be the shopping centre’s first bookshop since Times Bookstores left the complex some time before 2019 (and then totally exited the market when their one and only unit in Holland Village closed last year). With Popular seeming more and more like a provision shop, Kinokuniya is the last chain bookstore that lives up to its name standing here.

But NBC’s tenancy in the CapitaLand mall has not totally ended. The popular stationer is relocating to another unit on the same floor, where the electronics retailer Challenger formerly was. NBC in Singapore is as old as Kinokuniya itself: The bookshop opened in 1983, the same year the now-demolished Liang Court welcome shoppers to its then predominantly Japanese offerings, including Daimaru department store. NBC was part of the bookshop at the time. Despite some present-day book buyers’ open disdain of stationary shops, NBC remained strong, even operating as a freestanding store, such as their charming little Bugis Junction store, where an impressive range of Japanese writing materials and such could be found.

The new entrance of the smaller Kinokuniya at Takashimaya Shopping Centre

With the confirmed opening of the new store in Raffles City, it is tempting to think that Kinokuniya’s nearest outlet in Bugis Junction (about ten minutes away by foot) could be closed. According to Kinokuniya’s corporate communication material, the compact Bugis store targets “a youthful crowd of Gen Z students and millennial executives.” Media reports states that the new store replacing NBC will include a ‘Blue Room’—“a serene space dedicated to literature”. For many, it is heartening that Kinokuniya is concentrating on books and opening a brand new store for books alone. Online, there are those, however, who, before the new shop opens, are pessimistic in their view, believing it won’t last long.

The NBC store is still operating. Although there is a sign on one of the racks that say “up to 80% off”, it is not a storewide markdown. Many who came to know of the store’s impending closure are not aware that NBC is not closing down, and will be moving to another shop space diagonally across from their existing unit. Two girls in their late teens were overhead expressing their disappointment loudly when they realised it was not a go-belly-up clearance. “Aiya, where got sale? Stupid, man. Waste our time.” When we told them that NBC is not closing for good and will be moving to another unit on the same floor, they merely said, “izzit?” We then told them that Kinokuniya will take over the space. One of them replied, “huh, who still buy books? Stupid.”

Photos: Chin Boh Kay