Little India shops take their suitcase sales to the streets — and Singaporeans have opinions

SINGAPORE: It was recently reported that some of the shops in Little India had been illegally displaying suitcases for sale on the street. As shared by Shin Min Daily News, there are photos that are circulating online that show dozens of suitcases densely packed on the road, and even a red car parked in front of the shop was spotted with more than 10 suitcases on its lap.

There was another shop that had about four rows of suitcases displayed on the double yellow lines of the road in front of its store, alongside four or five orange traffic cones. Shop employees were also seen standing nearby, keeping watch. 

According to Singaporean law, no shops can place items on five-foot ways, sidewalks, and roads in order to avoid obstructing pedestrians. Violators of this law may be fined up to $2,000, and repeat offenders may be subject to an additional fine of up to $100 per day. 

When interviewed, one of the shop managers claimed that it was the first time he had moved the suitcases to the road as a form of advertising. The manager claimed: “Without disturbing others, we decided to take our luggage out to sell as a form of advertising, because the neighbouring businesses have done it many times.” 

Furthermore, the other shop owner who displayed their suitcases on the double yellow lines admitted that they had only been doing this on Sundays, because it is busier and they hoped to boost sales. 

“We are all employees, just following orders. Otherwise, we wouldn’t dare to do this, but it’s only one day a week,” an employee claimed. 

With this, some members of the public criticised the businesses. One stated that when the owner's red car was surrounded by his own luggage, someone came into the store and verbally abused them, telling them that what they were doing was illegal.

However, despite the conflict, some netizens thought that the store was creative in advertising their products. Still, there are some who hoped that relevant authorities would launch an investigation into this case. 

In other news, there was a report that a woman suspected that a 78-year-old was speaking badly about her and decided to take matters into her own hands aggressively. 

The woman pulled the elderly person’s shirt from behind, causing her to fall heavily to the ground and suffer serious injuries.

Read more about the news story here.