Restaurants spice up Singapore’s bland retail scene

Dining out is becoming a lifestyle trend.

While most traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to keep customers happy in Singapore’s extremely competitive retail landscape, restaurants are flourishing almost effortlessly as dining out becomes the new national pastime.

A report by RHB Research said that food service retailers are likely to perform better when it comes to other traditional retailers, as they offer a unique service that cannot be replicated by aggressive online sellers.

“Online offerings can substitute common merchandise sales in terms of IT gadgets, cosmetics and accessories. However, food retailing services, especially restaurants, eateries and bars, provide customers with more than just food. It offers them the sitting down, eating and catching up with families or friends experience that cannot be bought from e-commerce platforms,” said the report.

RHB Research also noted that there is a growing preference for dining out in Singapore, particularly as more women enter the workforce. 

“There is likely to be less time available for home cooking. Households are likely to continue to spend more on dining out. As evident from Statistics Singapore’s expenditure survey, average households have been spending more on food services such as restaurants over the years,” RHB Research said.