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Local bookstore chain Popular recently closed down their 17,000 sq ft Marine Parade outlet on 18 June 2023 and a few customers interviewed by the Straits Times (ST) said “they feel very sad”. In another ST report, a Popular spokesman explained that footfall at the Marine Parade outlet began to decline drastically in 2018 and 2019. The nail in the coffin was the pandemic which started in 2020 and footfall has not recovered.
Popular closed a number of outlets in recent years, which included one at Thomson Plaza in 2019, one at IMM in 2021 and the Tiong Bahru Mall outlet in May this year. Popular also operated Harris bookstores, a brand they bought in the 1960s. At its peak, there were seven Harris bookstores in Singapore but unfortunately, the last Harris store closed down in 2012.
At the time of writing, there are still 25 retail stores spread across Singapore, based on Popular’s store locator page.
A Brief History of Popular
The Popular Book Company was founded by the late Chou Sing Chu in 1936, with its first bookstore in North Bridge Road, focusing on retailing Chinese books and stationery. In 1991, the brand “CD-RAMA” was launched to retail music and audio products in Popular Singapore and subsequently in Popular Malaysia and Popular Hong Kong in 1992.
