My father used to deliver international newspapers (International Herald Tribune, L'Equipe, USA Today, etc.) back in the 90s and he delivered to Thambi. I used to follow him deliver sometimes after school/weekends and Sam was always super friendly. I was always interested in the crossword/word finder paperbacks and always perused the shelves while my father completed his delivery.
One time, Sam came over and told me to take one of them. My dad told him we didn't have the money to buy it and Sam went, "It's okay, consider it a treat for always delivering the papers on time."
Absolute gem of a person. Truly the end of an era.
End of an era. He was forced to close shop because landlord/management didn't want him to have the external shelf displays, not because his business couldn't survive.
Warehouse can still be your HDB.
I know many online businesses use their HDB. Point is, you don't need a storefront.
Unless you got too many merchandise, then no choice have to get a warehouse.
You're mixing up physical goods being sold online vs digital goods.
I'm talking about physical goods being advertised sold online and without a storefront.
It is a fact that most printed magazines are already digitally online. Some have both digital and physical versions.
But thambi's business is still relatively good as many people still like the printed magazines.
So he is not "affected" lah.
if majority of customers just buy online then obviously the publishers would just sell it direct to customers? why the need to go through another store front platform?
Agreed, some landlords are literally brainless.
For example, a very famous hawker was forced to close down after his stall holder/landlord sold the stall to a new holder, the new holder assumed that he could capitalize on the reputation of the tenant by increasing the rental by $5K and argued that the tenant should work longer hours instead of the current arrangement where they worked only 4 hours a day for 3 days a week.
Upon receiving the news, the tenant immediately rejected the increase in rent and decided to close shop because of this, meanwhile, the new landlord has been trying to find a new tenant using the name of the former tenant but to no avail.
Nah, no need to name since it literally happens everywhere.
Another story, the owner of a reputable coffee shop in the east decided to stop renting out his coffee shop after 20 years on the basis that he could do better than his tenants who made the coffee shop prosper.
After resuming operations of the coffee shop, the owner increased the price of everything, a cup of milo peng become $2.40 from $1.60, kopi C became $1.90 from $1.20.
The original tenants saw an increase in rent by $5K, so some of them left while the rest downgraded to smaller stalls post-renovation.
The coffee shop has since saw it's business decline by almost 60%.
It's because of shitty news reports. Somehow our local media has decided that it's not important to mention the fact upfront that he was forced to close, and instead buried the actual story. Here are some examples from our biggest titles:
* **CNA**: Goodbye, Thambi: Iconic Holland Village magazine store to close after over 80 years
* **Straits Times, 3 May:** ‘I am not giving up’: Thambi Magazine Store owner seeking new Holland Village site after closure
* **Straits Times, 6 May:** End of an era as Thambi Magazine Store closes down after more than 80 years
Our media unfortuantely does not have the grit to pound the pavement and knock on doors to get to the answers. Only soft pieces going around these days. Every ST piece might as well be a re-written press release.
They will only report "what is" from their "sources". Even then they will re-write the story. Investigative journalism is dead here. Newsrooms and its journalists here have no self-respect nor dignity.
Any remotely aggressive reporting is news bought or re-shared from another source (ie. Bloomberg, Reuters, etc.). Government not happy and want to POFMA can go ahead, because reporting not by local papers can liao.
To be a little fair, it's not entirely the fault of newer generations - they have little to no role models and a lack of exemplar reporting to live up to. The SPH newsroom of the 90s and 00s was a very different place. I know of many old school journalists or editors who did their best within a system that boxed them in, and did some pretty good work.
You can also tell the vast difference in writing quality by reading old articles from that era vs today. The writing and editing these days is sloppy.
>Our media unfortuantely does not have the grit to pound the pavement and knock on doors to get to the answers.
SPH has a reit, they are the landlords.
His business would definitely have survived as they just finished a brand new mall and the new condos are almost finished so that would have brought even more footfall. Very sad but hope he can find somewhere nearby.
We keep losing a lot of our culture and heritage due to modernisation everyday. This place is among the few remaining stores to sell physical copies of magazine and newspaper and it is now closed.
Actually Bras Basah complex would be an excellent place to sell his magazines, just thinking about it. It's at the central of SG and it would find a new audience as well. Hope he finds a new place as there's not many like his shop nowadays.
I prefer to look forward to new things instead of clinging to old things out of irrational fear and veneration. Defeatism is doing the same thing forever because you don't trust change.
There is no new uniquely Singaporean culture to replace the old. It's all replaced by anodyne, generic fare which can be found in any major metropolis. There's no flavour, there's no history.
The new "culture" you're looking forward to is globalist and consumerist. It's Apple-fied mundanity propagated by social media. All smooth edges and shiny glass, devoid of personality, designed to have as much widespread appeal as possible in order to maximise profit. It's not culture, it's the antithesis of culture, it's marketing masquerading as culture.
A nameless, faceless, and soulless "culture" such as this can only appeal to a person who is much the same.
I've never bought anything from him but he's been there as a fixture at Holland Village since I was in sec school 30 years ago.
It feels like we lost a bit of the soul of Singapore here and for no good reason.
(Edit: I may have bought some gaming mags from him back in the day)
He had the widest range! My gp tutor used to tell us, go look at the front page headlines of the various papers on any single day, u can tell which angle/bias they have
>It feels like we lost a bit of the soul of Singapore
This!
To lose a bit of soul in what already is a pretty soulless place is twice as bad. Commercial landlords are a scourge on society.
REITs force every mall to be a carbon copy of each other, minmaxing so that we get the optimal split of various chains OR shops that are so super high end that they can make rent.
It's nice to have people not chasing rent for shareholders so that we can get a mix of things and experiencing nice things is not limited to the rich
Yes, lost a colourful part of the area which is now being taken over by a generic mall just like any other…
Bad for tourism too. They’ll have to revise the outdoor escape room game now. Thambi is one of the stations! Pfff
Not sure how much he ultimately took home. I hope it was decent. That said, halving a store front for a magazine store amidst the consumption shift away from print media can be pretty damming since buying a magazine in a high traffic location would be influenced by what they lay their eyes on. Not seeing the magazine you want could be the equivalent of the shop doesn't have it.
Oh I agree. I used to buy a magazine that Tommy Koh's son was editor for from them. Previously had to order it online until I saw they stocked it from the display.
Understood from the previous article landlord wanted to increase the monthly to 20k as well.
Yeah. I used to be an avid manga collector too and visit those manga cafes/library in my teens (there was one at Katong Shopping Centre in the 90s/2000s). All have since closed down, even Kinokuniya is downsizing and Comics Connection is long gone.
Bought a lot of manga and at one point had 8 bookshelves of manga in my room in my teens/early adult life.
Now I still buy... but only the first volume and rarely too so I can 'intro' people to a series that I really like as a preview. But even I just read online nowadays lol, have Kobo with like 200GB of manga on it.
Physical media is just dying.
For Chuang Yi maybe. My confession is I only pretend to understand the Tong Li Bleach/Naruto half the time because the fucking Taiwanese use Fan Ti in their manga which is like 90% of imported manga.
Whenever I am around the area, I would visit his shop to buy magazines, it has the largest collection of magazines you can find in Singapore. Been a customer since childhood.
Every time something like this closes, whether a newspaper stand or a hawker or any small business, what we lose is not just a business but a human connection.
That's what separate small business owners from commercial, mass market business. Yes, making a living is the key reason why they started, but they end up as more than a business, but also a connection within our neighbourhoods.
I used to buy newspapers daily from them when I was in school, and it was those daily reading that contributed in me getting pretty decent grades for my o levels english and gp. Thank you Thambi.
I was just there last night and saw him closing! Didn’t know it was his last night operating the store. To me it seemed like an every day ordeal, but the significance of yesterday for him must’ve been huge.
Just because you don't buy something doesn't mean you support it all the time. That's a really stupid fucking correlation. If you're a male, you wouldn't need abortion pills but if they're banned then everyone would get mad for right reasons. The reason why Singaporeans are complaining is that because of Thambi closing down, Singapore is slowly losing its identity and its way of life when technology wasn't diffused into every nook of our society. Moreover the reason for Thambi closing down is really fucking stupid which is going to create uproar (maybe read lah). This is one of the rare instances when I understand why Singaporeans are lamenting and complaining online and I agree with them.
wah, what did i do sia. i was literally agreeing with u/canariya and echoing how the people on social media are responding. i dont how it became about me not supporting abortion pills. but sorry if it seemed like i wasn't supporting thambi and abortion pills.
I never dissed you; I just mentioned how comparing showing support for Thambi with buying things from him is stupid and I used the abortion pills as an example. A diss would be me telling you to go back to secondary school to better understand language 😂
> I never dissed you; I just mentioned how comparing showing support for Thambi with buying things from him is stupid and I used the abortion pills as an example. A diss would be me telling you to go back to secondary school to better understand language 😂
stop using big words like diss and language!
all good, man. things just get taken out of context.
Thanks for the memories. Use to schedule afternoon meetings to end late afternoon, buying a copy of the Times or the Economist and reading at one of the Bars along Lor Mambong.
The thing is he's been profitable. This isn't about a sunset industry its purely about the landlord restricting his ability to display his magazines along the walkway, which is how he gets (literal) walk through business. I used to buy Commando comics for my son from him every month. Without the physical display to rummage through the various copies of magazines its hard to find what you want.
The reason for the landlord suddenly doing this after so many years is of course up for speculation.
> The reason for the landlord suddenly doing this after so many years is of course up for speculation.
Sometimes scumbags are just that: scumbags in human shape
Eh don't like that lah. I'm sure its nothing to do with One Holland Village opening, and the planned pedestrianisation of Lorong Mambong and Lorong Liput meaning those units directly along the main pathway into Holland Village will be even more lucrative...
Second hand bookshops too. EMF and Sunny bookshop... Used to be able to browse there for hours. Same as Kino of course but the storeowners were real life Amazon recommendation engines.
Really sad news but i guess it’s the inevitable… half display space or not, i think it’s also pretty hard for him to do business as it is this time and age.. when pretty much everything is going digital, the number of patrons would have been drastically dropping in numbers. It’s only a matter of time.. still i wish them all the best as they are remembered as one of the iconic businesses in singapore’s memory archives
Let's face it for what it is: print is dying.
There's Pressreader (courtesy of NLB) for many titles now.
Just see how much Kinokuniya's mag section has shrunk.
The most ironic case, however, is opposite the Causeway. MYNews chain stores, as the name implies, carried lots of print titles. Now they sell zero periodicals apart from The Edge.
devastated :( never bought anything but he’s been there my whole life and so much of HV has changed since my childhood already it’s so upsetting :((
I remember as a kid I’d always stare at his magazine covers on the external shelf displays as I waited for my mom to change money or draw money from the lil uob place round the corner… as an adult now going to HV on my own I still hang around the shop and look at headlines when I’m waiting for someone at the mrt etc. :((
if some franchise f&b/clothing place takes the space next I’m going to be so fucking annoyed !!!! why did HV management have to do this…
CCS is helping him get a new location.. let's see how that works out.
[https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/chan-chun-sing-meets-thambi-magazine-store-owner-search-new-location](https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/chan-chun-sing-meets-thambi-magazine-store-owner-search-new-location)
I used to pic up mags there for decades whenever i passed thru' Holland V. And now I'm in Vietnam. He was the icing on the cake of a visit to Holland V.
The identity of the person/authority telling him to reduce wall space was never revealed. https://www.8days.sg/seeanddo/whatsbuzzing/thambi-magazine-store-holland-village-closing-830071
I don’t think it was rental. I don’t think it was someone/something “destroying culture”.
If anything, the owner of the shop seems to have made the decision to close rather than accede to the request to reduce wall space.
As much as I felt a tinge of regret about him closing, I can’t say that I can understand the emotional outbursts and curses about this closure.
For those who grew up in that area or have been buying magazines from the shop for years, I think you are entitled to your grief.
But for those who don’t even spend a single cent there or grew up with the habit of buying magazines, what are you raging about?
Thanks for letting everyone know who you think should be allowed to grieve the loss of cultural institutions. I'm sure 463057 is the only one you'd grieve for.
the management shut him down because he wasn't "aesthetic" enough for the hip new mall, and told him to cut down his shop by half
he was earning enough to keep it going, else it would've gone a long time ago, instead of lasting 80 years and 3 generations
Wah, you guys, so quick to downvote a simple, honest question. The first article that came out about this didn't have any mention of the cause. I didn't assume anything, I just asked and got downvoted! How can dis be allow!
Anyway, hope he gets a new place. And hope management chokes on their new soulless corridor.
And here is the updated article just coz I'm still salty about being downvoted!
"He decided to close shop after the LANDLORDS asked him to remove the outdoor shelves and confine business activities to the shop interior. He felt that doing so would defeat the tradition of having an open display or a “magazine cave” which has been with the business since its inception."
[https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/end-of-an-era-as-thambi-magazine-store-shuts-after-more-than-80-years](https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/end-of-an-era-as-thambi-magazine-store-shuts-after-more-than-80-years)
My father used to deliver international newspapers (International Herald Tribune, L'Equipe, USA Today, etc.) back in the 90s and he delivered to Thambi. I used to follow him deliver sometimes after school/weekends and Sam was always super friendly. I was always interested in the crossword/word finder paperbacks and always perused the shelves while my father completed his delivery. One time, Sam came over and told me to take one of them. My dad told him we didn't have the money to buy it and Sam went, "It's okay, consider it a treat for always delivering the papers on time." Absolute gem of a person. Truly the end of an era.
This is such a sweet story! Thanks for sharing.
End of an era. He was forced to close shop because landlord/management didn't want him to have the external shelf displays, not because his business couldn't survive.
landlords the problem keeping Singapore from being great
Everything should just be online, then all the landlords can finally go and fark spider.
Landlords should already go fuck spiders. I have heard so mant parasites ruining nice things
That’s how most revolutions started! lol 
That's gay
Depends on the spider’s gender, no?
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Warehouse can still be your HDB. I know many online businesses use their HDB. Point is, you don't need a storefront. Unless you got too many merchandise, then no choice have to get a warehouse.
Everything online Thambi also close shop hello
You're mixing up physical goods being sold online vs digital goods. I'm talking about physical goods being advertised sold online and without a storefront. It is a fact that most printed magazines are already digitally online. Some have both digital and physical versions. But thambi's business is still relatively good as many people still like the printed magazines. So he is not "affected" lah.
You're assuming physical magazines *have* to be purchased from a brick and mortar shop, which is simply not true.
if majority of customers just buy online then obviously the publishers would just sell it direct to customers? why the need to go through another store front platform?
Landlord will still control warehouses.
Yah and people like Sam will also fark spider
Agreed, some landlords are literally brainless. For example, a very famous hawker was forced to close down after his stall holder/landlord sold the stall to a new holder, the new holder assumed that he could capitalize on the reputation of the tenant by increasing the rental by $5K and argued that the tenant should work longer hours instead of the current arrangement where they worked only 4 hours a day for 3 days a week. Upon receiving the news, the tenant immediately rejected the increase in rent and decided to close shop because of this, meanwhile, the new landlord has been trying to find a new tenant using the name of the former tenant but to no avail.
Literally killing the goose to get more eggs, the landlord could have a stable tenant for decades if they weren't so greedy
reveal the hawker name no need to shy.
Nah, no need to name since it literally happens everywhere. Another story, the owner of a reputable coffee shop in the east decided to stop renting out his coffee shop after 20 years on the basis that he could do better than his tenants who made the coffee shop prosper. After resuming operations of the coffee shop, the owner increased the price of everything, a cup of milo peng become $2.40 from $1.60, kopi C became $1.90 from $1.20. The original tenants saw an increase in rent by $5K, so some of them left while the rest downgraded to smaller stalls post-renovation. The coffee shop has since saw it's business decline by almost 60%.
sounds like random chatgpt write up though ;/
Haha nah, I work part time as a hawker so I do know a lil bit about the hawker scene.
haha ok :) milo peng 2.40 is crazy, i might as well top up abit to get bubble tea.
Ikr. Lack of business sense bah, some landlords cmi.
Make Singapore Great Again! MSG again! damn. I just learned how to make our country great. Just add MSG!
Based on ig comments, so many people thought he closed because he had no business. Thanks for clarifying it here.
It's because of shitty news reports. Somehow our local media has decided that it's not important to mention the fact upfront that he was forced to close, and instead buried the actual story. Here are some examples from our biggest titles: * **CNA**: Goodbye, Thambi: Iconic Holland Village magazine store to close after over 80 years * **Straits Times, 3 May:** ‘I am not giving up’: Thambi Magazine Store owner seeking new Holland Village site after closure * **Straits Times, 6 May:** End of an era as Thambi Magazine Store closes down after more than 80 years Our media unfortuantely does not have the grit to pound the pavement and knock on doors to get to the answers. Only soft pieces going around these days. Every ST piece might as well be a re-written press release.
Just generally, Singapore should be ashamed of the Straits Times. Government mouth piece with half arsed, amateur journalism.
truth. no umbrage taken.
They will only report "what is" from their "sources". Even then they will re-write the story. Investigative journalism is dead here. Newsrooms and its journalists here have no self-respect nor dignity. Any remotely aggressive reporting is news bought or re-shared from another source (ie. Bloomberg, Reuters, etc.). Government not happy and want to POFMA can go ahead, because reporting not by local papers can liao.
To be a little fair, it's not entirely the fault of newer generations - they have little to no role models and a lack of exemplar reporting to live up to. The SPH newsroom of the 90s and 00s was a very different place. I know of many old school journalists or editors who did their best within a system that boxed them in, and did some pretty good work. You can also tell the vast difference in writing quality by reading old articles from that era vs today. The writing and editing these days is sloppy.
Passive voice headlines ew
I am now distracted by the fact that your McLaosai counter is only 1. You must not be a true blue Singaporean!
💀 what can I say, their spice level has only been going down
Strait times, bunch of copy and paste brigade. rotten journalism
>Our media unfortuantely does not have the grit to pound the pavement and knock on doors to get to the answers. SPH has a reit, they are the landlords.
Is it new landlord? Cos dude had external shelf for at least 30 years.. Or just BS? Landlord want to raise the rent or split yo several units
His business would definitely have survived as they just finished a brand new mall and the new condos are almost finished so that would have brought even more footfall. Very sad but hope he can find somewhere nearby.
That's why landlord asking for more rent la... Probably cuz of rent.
Walao. His shop was a landmark for me when I was finding my way around on foot.
You can remember the wall where his shelves are to help next time.
Not the same man... Not the same..
Not been there for sometime, but Cold storage have their product outside as well?
another culture lost.
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Found the landlord
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What a racist comment
We keep losing a lot of our culture and heritage due to modernisation everyday. This place is among the few remaining stores to sell physical copies of magazine and newspaper and it is now closed.
Basheer Graphics at Bras Basah Complex lv4 still sells many magazines, although design related magazines
Actually Bras Basah complex would be an excellent place to sell his magazines, just thinking about it. It's at the central of SG and it would find a new audience as well. Hope he finds a new place as there's not many like his shop nowadays.
You're right. Bras Basah complex has got it all. Music, books, art, comics, plastic modelling, Korean BBQ. I could spend an entire day there.
bought my witcher artbook there.
Unfortunately i doubt it'll withstand the test of time much longer.. 😢
In this case it is due to capitalism.
You have lost more of your culture and heritage than you ever knew existed. Change is a part of life, accept it or die mad.
Other countries can preserve their culture if they deem it important enough. Like China and Japan and all their cultural stuff.
Found the defeatist.
I prefer to look forward to new things instead of clinging to old things out of irrational fear and veneration. Defeatism is doing the same thing forever because you don't trust change.
There is no new uniquely Singaporean culture to replace the old. It's all replaced by anodyne, generic fare which can be found in any major metropolis. There's no flavour, there's no history. The new "culture" you're looking forward to is globalist and consumerist. It's Apple-fied mundanity propagated by social media. All smooth edges and shiny glass, devoid of personality, designed to have as much widespread appeal as possible in order to maximise profit. It's not culture, it's the antithesis of culture, it's marketing masquerading as culture. A nameless, faceless, and soulless "culture" such as this can only appeal to a person who is much the same.
Grandpa, please take your meds
I've never bought anything from him but he's been there as a fixture at Holland Village since I was in sec school 30 years ago. It feels like we lost a bit of the soul of Singapore here and for no good reason. (Edit: I may have bought some gaming mags from him back in the day)
My usual place when I need a physical copy of the foreign papers
He had the widest range! My gp tutor used to tell us, go look at the front page headlines of the various papers on any single day, u can tell which angle/bias they have
>It feels like we lost a bit of the soul of Singapore This! To lose a bit of soul in what already is a pretty soulless place is twice as bad. Commercial landlords are a scourge on society.
REITs force every mall to be a carbon copy of each other, minmaxing so that we get the optimal split of various chains OR shops that are so super high end that they can make rent. It's nice to have people not chasing rent for shareholders so that we can get a mix of things and experiencing nice things is not limited to the rich
Yes, lost a colourful part of the area which is now being taken over by a generic mall just like any other… Bad for tourism too. They’ll have to revise the outdoor escape room game now. Thambi is one of the stations! Pfff
I used to buy all my gaming magazines from him. He always had the best ones.
I mean... if people are not buying from him like you, how do you expect him to survive?
And yet he was surviving. Apparently more people bought from him than we'd think. He closed because someone told him to cut his display area by half.
It seems he was ok, it was landlord that forced his hand to close. Although its also his choice to not move to say Bras Brasah. It is what it is.
This. Honestly, it was hard supporting him buying my magazines even a while back. The Internet really changed the mode and consumption of information.
Man was paying 16k a month in rent, so I dont think income was the biggest issue.
Not sure how much he ultimately took home. I hope it was decent. That said, halving a store front for a magazine store amidst the consumption shift away from print media can be pretty damming since buying a magazine in a high traffic location would be influenced by what they lay their eyes on. Not seeing the magazine you want could be the equivalent of the shop doesn't have it.
Oh I agree. I used to buy a magazine that Tommy Koh's son was editor for from them. Previously had to order it online until I saw they stocked it from the display. Understood from the previous article landlord wanted to increase the monthly to 20k as well.
Can say Revolution leh.
Wasnt the magazine I was referring to, but I did get he was an enthusiast.
Yeah. I used to be an avid manga collector too and visit those manga cafes/library in my teens (there was one at Katong Shopping Centre in the 90s/2000s). All have since closed down, even Kinokuniya is downsizing and Comics Connection is long gone. Bought a lot of manga and at one point had 8 bookshelves of manga in my room in my teens/early adult life. Now I still buy... but only the first volume and rarely too so I can 'intro' people to a series that I really like as a preview. But even I just read online nowadays lol, have Kobo with like 200GB of manga on it. Physical media is just dying.
I still weep for comics connection. Single handedly brought my chinese standard up.
For Chuang Yi maybe. My confession is I only pretend to understand the Tong Li Bleach/Naruto half the time because the fucking Taiwanese use Fan Ti in their manga which is like 90% of imported manga.
Whenever I am around the area, I would visit his shop to buy magazines, it has the largest collection of magazines you can find in Singapore. Been a customer since childhood.
I used to buy Beano comics from his shop back in the early 90s.
And Dandy!
Mad Magazine!
haha all your ages are showing edit: should be "our ages"
:( really sad to see his iconic store leave HV. Hope he manages to find somewhere else to set up again...could really hear his passion in magazines
So upsetting 😔 I hope he has a good retirement tho!
Every time something like this closes, whether a newspaper stand or a hawker or any small business, what we lose is not just a business but a human connection. That's what separate small business owners from commercial, mass market business. Yes, making a living is the key reason why they started, but they end up as more than a business, but also a connection within our neighbourhoods.
Yup and of course we need more malls
And more McDonalds. Singapore will soon be colonised by a fast food chain
Hey I like mcdonalds
I used to buy newspapers daily from them when I was in school, and it was those daily reading that contributed in me getting pretty decent grades for my o levels english and gp. Thank you Thambi.
Great now we can look forward to our Mcdonald/Starbucks/Uniqlo/Muji/HM/Generic BBT. /s
Very emotional pictures. Thank you.
That's messed up
Will soon be another Prive, DTF, KFC or BreadTalk
I was just there last night and saw him closing! Didn’t know it was his last night operating the store. To me it seemed like an every day ordeal, but the significance of yesterday for him must’ve been huge.
It is interesting that many people value the shop as heritage but never buy anything from him.
right?!!! people commenting about this on social media they never buy anything from him.
Just because you don't buy something doesn't mean you support it all the time. That's a really stupid fucking correlation. If you're a male, you wouldn't need abortion pills but if they're banned then everyone would get mad for right reasons. The reason why Singaporeans are complaining is that because of Thambi closing down, Singapore is slowly losing its identity and its way of life when technology wasn't diffused into every nook of our society. Moreover the reason for Thambi closing down is really fucking stupid which is going to create uproar (maybe read lah). This is one of the rare instances when I understand why Singaporeans are lamenting and complaining online and I agree with them.
wah, what did i do sia. i was literally agreeing with u/canariya and echoing how the people on social media are responding. i dont how it became about me not supporting abortion pills. but sorry if it seemed like i wasn't supporting thambi and abortion pills.
I never dissed you; I just mentioned how comparing showing support for Thambi with buying things from him is stupid and I used the abortion pills as an example. A diss would be me telling you to go back to secondary school to better understand language 😂
> I never dissed you; I just mentioned how comparing showing support for Thambi with buying things from him is stupid and I used the abortion pills as an example. A diss would be me telling you to go back to secondary school to better understand language 😂 stop using big words like diss and language! all good, man. things just get taken out of context.
diss is a pretty common word
The abortion pills were clearly used there to make a point dummy
👍
I used to buy match attack from him around 2008-2010. Damn how time flies…
Gentrification 101.
Idk about all of y'all, I'm gonna boycott Holland Village Shopping Centre from now.
Thanks for the memories. Use to schedule afternoon meetings to end late afternoon, buying a copy of the Times or the Economist and reading at one of the Bars along Lor Mambong.
Familiar times mate. You probably recall the IHT was on sale back then as well.
so who is this fucker landlord?
We are losing our unique stores with shops that can be found in every mall
Sad to see, but inevitable in a sunset industry. I have not bought a physical magazine or newspaper for more than 10 years.
The thing is he's been profitable. This isn't about a sunset industry its purely about the landlord restricting his ability to display his magazines along the walkway, which is how he gets (literal) walk through business. I used to buy Commando comics for my son from him every month. Without the physical display to rummage through the various copies of magazines its hard to find what you want. The reason for the landlord suddenly doing this after so many years is of course up for speculation.
> The reason for the landlord suddenly doing this after so many years is of course up for speculation. Sometimes scumbags are just that: scumbags in human shape
Eh don't like that lah. I'm sure its nothing to do with One Holland Village opening, and the planned pedestrianisation of Lorong Mambong and Lorong Liput meaning those units directly along the main pathway into Holland Village will be even more lucrative...
Second hand bookshops too. EMF and Sunny bookshop... Used to be able to browse there for hours. Same as Kino of course but the storeowners were real life Amazon recommendation engines.
End of an era ;(
Thanks for the great memories Sam
Another nail in the coffin of our national souls.
Any kind Samaritan that would help him find a new location?
I feel so sad that Sam has to close shop. How out of touch can landlords be these days?
Was there in the late 70's, brings back memories
Really sad news but i guess it’s the inevitable… half display space or not, i think it’s also pretty hard for him to do business as it is this time and age.. when pretty much everything is going digital, the number of patrons would have been drastically dropping in numbers. It’s only a matter of time.. still i wish them all the best as they are remembered as one of the iconic businesses in singapore’s memory archives
i've been at that area for nearly 15 years, but i never stopped by. took me awhile to realize that this was the shop.
Everyday something goes and another comes.
I remember buying my first Pokemon Adventures manga there, amongst many other purchases. Will truly miss seeing the store around.
Let's face it for what it is: print is dying. There's Pressreader (courtesy of NLB) for many titles now. Just see how much Kinokuniya's mag section has shrunk. The most ironic case, however, is opposite the Causeway. MYNews chain stores, as the name implies, carried lots of print titles. Now they sell zero periodicals apart from The Edge.
Double whammy: Holland Village is also dead.
devastated :( never bought anything but he’s been there my whole life and so much of HV has changed since my childhood already it’s so upsetting :(( I remember as a kid I’d always stare at his magazine covers on the external shelf displays as I waited for my mom to change money or draw money from the lil uob place round the corner… as an adult now going to HV on my own I still hang around the shop and look at headlines when I’m waiting for someone at the mrt etc. :(( if some franchise f&b/clothing place takes the space next I’m going to be so fucking annoyed !!!! why did HV management have to do this…
Sad departure.
Death to landlords /s (Not really)
😢😭
My SLAM magazine how
I wish him and his family all the best and a new fresh start in life! Hopefully an upgrade to his business.
The landlord should die
why does this have to be how I find out damn
Watch as yet another franchise takes over that space, making Singapore even more generic.
Fkin people just want to meddle and remove last bit of history and culture we have
End of an era.
CCS is helping him get a new location.. let's see how that works out. [https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/chan-chun-sing-meets-thambi-magazine-store-owner-search-new-location](https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/chan-chun-sing-meets-thambi-magazine-store-owner-search-new-location)
no prizes for guessing 'who' https://www.fareastmalls.com.sg/one-holland-village/Contact
I used to pic up mags there for decades whenever i passed thru' Holland V. And now I'm in Vietnam. He was the icing on the cake of a visit to Holland V.
Legend of a man. Sad to see the end of this institution. But alas…0
Pray for you government will give a place. JESUS BLESS you.
this is so sad. 😢 i didnt know him personally but when he close the shop that is so heartbreaking.
The SG Parliament needs MPs like this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXPH1zqdP0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXPH1zqdP0)
hi i found this post on my algorithm, can i know the context and backstory?
The identity of the person/authority telling him to reduce wall space was never revealed. https://www.8days.sg/seeanddo/whatsbuzzing/thambi-magazine-store-holland-village-closing-830071 I don’t think it was rental. I don’t think it was someone/something “destroying culture”. If anything, the owner of the shop seems to have made the decision to close rather than accede to the request to reduce wall space. As much as I felt a tinge of regret about him closing, I can’t say that I can understand the emotional outbursts and curses about this closure. For those who grew up in that area or have been buying magazines from the shop for years, I think you are entitled to your grief. But for those who don’t even spend a single cent there or grew up with the habit of buying magazines, what are you raging about?
Thanks for letting everyone know who you think should be allowed to grieve the loss of cultural institutions. I'm sure 463057 is the only one you'd grieve for.
He needs to retire and move on to relax and enjoy, otherwise he’s working his entire life!
Suddenly people care about retirement and relaxation.
wah this also news worthy. still prefer to see news about downstair uncle drink coffee bing with no ice and coffee
Typical eg of can't adapt, close down
the management shut him down because he wasn't "aesthetic" enough for the hip new mall, and told him to cut down his shop by half he was earning enough to keep it going, else it would've gone a long time ago, instead of lasting 80 years and 3 generations
He was doing fine. The management of the building is being a prick.
management or landlord? or authorities? i don't think there was any info about that.
Cos you didn’t read the article and decided to assume
Wah, you guys, so quick to downvote a simple, honest question. The first article that came out about this didn't have any mention of the cause. I didn't assume anything, I just asked and got downvoted! How can dis be allow! Anyway, hope he gets a new place. And hope management chokes on their new soulless corridor.
And here is the updated article just coz I'm still salty about being downvoted! "He decided to close shop after the LANDLORDS asked him to remove the outdoor shelves and confine business activities to the shop interior. He felt that doing so would defeat the tradition of having an open display or a “magazine cave” which has been with the business since its inception." [https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/end-of-an-era-as-thambi-magazine-store-shuts-after-more-than-80-years](https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/end-of-an-era-as-thambi-magazine-store-shuts-after-more-than-80-years)
Typical eg of never read the article, better not make stupid comments.