Saturday 24 January 2015

My Feel - Fraser Centrepoint Trust (FCT)

CAR STORY
Today had been a long day for accompanying my friend to service his car at Hyundai Servicing Centre at Alexandra Road (Tiong Bahru area). We reached at 10.30am and had to wait until 4pm to have his car serviced. According to him, every car must be serviced for every 10,000 km distance travelled. During the servicing, the administration rep would try to sell things saying "you need to change your battery" and stuffs like this. I don't recommend changing anything there other than doing basic servicing. Because the price is hiked due to it's award winning records and so on. Example: a shell engine oil could be bought at around $70 in public but it was sold $100+ there according to my friend (who brought to replace a better engine oil at $50+ through the internet so as not to purchase the overpriced Shell engine oil)

Since today, I couldn't help but I felt sympathy for car owners in Singapore because of the overpricing in COE, jams on the road during peak hours, having to pay ERP and still get jam, having to expend on periodical insurances, road taxes, parking fees, inspection fees, petrol, ad hoc repairs and servicing fees that may still have to wait half a day to get it serviced. I had to admit but I have plans to own a car in the future when I have a family.


MAIN TOPIC
During our wait, we walked to Anchor Point in motivation of finding Kale veggie for my juicing nutrition inside Cold Storage. Finally! I got Kale! Some more it was on a discount due to the expiry date I guess. It is very hard to find Kale over here due to it's scarcity and overloaded benefits (here). After that we walked around the shopping mall it was quite heart warming to see groups of family gathering at the atrium with an event where stage was set up for the Prom King and Prom Queen childrens were made to dress up like prince and princess to cat walk the stage, when crowd from every level are looking down cheering for them.

Fast forward ->

Finally, as my friend have gotten a Manhattan Fish Market 1-for-1 voucher when he paid his bills in the AXS machine. We went to Bedok Point to enjoy the benefit. It was nice, but I shouldn't talk too much about it because 'NPNT'. After dinner, we walked around the mall talking about which shop would continue staying in Bedok Point and which shop would close down as we noticed some of the stalls are really empty. Jon, my friend mentioned earlier that there were a few malls before Bedok Point closing down due to lack of human flow and that may be due to myth that, it is a bad location as he labelled it as "Ghost Mall". But I guess Bedok Point is now doing well since there's quite a decent human flow when it comes to food as Bedok Point has a majority of F&B tenants.



Guess what? We saw the old Sushi Tei closing down and the place is now being renovated for the opening of Saizeriya soon to come along with some Korean chicken restaurant beside it. Can't wait for Saizeriya to open as they sell some italian-western fusion food on a cheap price for a restaurant and the food are not too shabby as well.

Overall, I enjoy visiting malls managed by FCT than CMT. I didn't say that because I had sold my CMT shares. I just felt more homely and things are more organised by the managements. And somehow I feel that restaurants tenants there are generally more affordable than in other malls, not including the $10 bread shop.

What I Think
For a shopping mall, I think the most important thing is comfort. People like to go back to places that they feel comfortable with. Second is product/services, so on and so forth. I think FCT has done a great job. I have confidence that it will grow further independently, despite not being a blue chip with government backing.

What do you think?

8 comments:

  1. Hello

    Speaking only on bedok point, I feel it has been overshadowed by bedok mall which is better and conveniently located. The latter has a fairprice finest which is such a hugh draw of crowd. Assuming people find fairprice finest a premium, chances are they will flood the Seng Song which is after the hawker centre. Talking about eateries, Bedok mall has many decent ones. With the new bedok interchange hawker centre, there are added competition. Yes,I agree with you that people like to go back to places that they are comfortable with. For me, Bedok Mall is better received. And,last to mention from an Auntie point of view, Capitalmall point accumulation seems more straight forward and attraction than Fraser. My thoughts only. I am not vested in FMT nor CMT. ��

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  2. Sorry for some grammatical errors. I mean *attractive* . And it is a cute smiley at the end but it turned out to be question mark.

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    Replies
    1. Hi LC!

      Thank you for your feedback! I agree with what you mentioned as well now that you talked about it. But i believe the opening of some attractive eateries in Bedok Point will certainly increase the human flow there in one way or another.

      Im excited about the opening of Saizeriya while the Korean BBQ buffet, Sukiyaki Buffet, Chicken Hot Pot, and Sushi Express have been a big hit in Bedok Central so far.

      Yummy :D :D :D

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    2. I am drooling. Shall go and peek! Haven been there for a while.lazy to walk. Excuse.excuse..

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    3. Morning Auntie LC,

      Yup should go see see!!! R u aunty by the way?? Hahaha

      Jfree

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  3. Hi jfree,

    Regarding car, you can always get a pre-owned one at a much more affordable cost. A pre-owned car that can still drive for another 4-5 yrs will cost about 35 to 40k. Nothing fancy, a small 1.4 to 1.6L one. That's quite okay, I feel.

    I always prefer Bedok pt compared to bedok mall. I like less crowded places and I don't like to queue for food. If I have to go during lunch time, I'll definitely choose Bedok pt. Bedok mall I'll go during late night (around 10pm) where it's much less crowded and do my grocery shopping. That's the only drawback about bedok pt, I feel. There's no anchor tenant who is in the supermarket business.

    Sushi express is not bad...I just tried it last Fri. Cheap and fresh sushi. Don't like the rice items though lol

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    Replies
    1. Hi LP

      Regarding the car I still feel the of liability owning one currently perhaps when Im richer ba!

      I don't think is wise for bedok point to have an anchor tenant of supermarket and it will not have one in the future also because Bedok Central got so many supermarket already. Giants, 2 x NTUC fairprice, shengsiong. Only dun have cold storage uh haha.

      I havent try sushi express because in bedok mall. The umi sushi us much cheaper 50cent per sushi. Without gst somemore :)))))

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  4. Hi jfree,

    I agree on the supermarket pov. But then again, bedok pt still went ahead with their ntuc supermarket...haha

    Hey, not all raw fish placed on top of rice is called sushi! Some kinds, like those from Sucky sushi, you give me I also won't eat LOL

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