Every shopping centre has its booms & downs. Heeren used to be a popular shopping mall with youngsters and teenagers, however it is currently at its low time with its traffic being diverted to the nearby new malls like Somerset 313 and Ion Orchard.

At the other side of Singapore, Vivo City seems to be buzzy with its new high traffic to the mega mall. I patronize Vivo City often, as it is equipped with many kids playground and facility that my family just love. Just years back in year 2006 when it was first opened, the mall was almost pretty empty with its large retail space of 1,100,000 square feet retail space.

However with the opening of Integrated Resort in Sentosa late last year, we could see the real impact of traffic hike to the mall. Right now I am always even having trouble finding a carpark space, and even have to queue for my favourite Kim Gary HongKong Restaurant (and this is happening to almost all restaurants in the mall). This is something that I never had in the earlier years of visit.

Traffic matters very much to a retail business in a mall. After ‘suffering’ a relatively long time, Vivocity is finally able to spread its wings to tap on the high inflow of tourists overspill from Sentosa Integrated Resort, and the locals attracted to its slowing revealing charm of being the largest shopping mall in town.