viscomm team 20
Research methods
We started our research on Sim Lim Square by trawling through old articles and any information that would give us an insight into the mall. To do this, we went to Lee Kong Chian Reference Library at the National Library building where we found a guide of Sim Lim Square published by Sim Lim Square Development in 1988. Based on our research, we found that the mall was no stranger to negative incidents. In the 1990s, the mall was notorious for selling pirated CDs and software.
The mall was once again cast into the limelight four years ago when news of Jover Chew’s exploits surfaced online. Jover Chew, owner of now-defunct mobile phone shop Mobile Air, made headlines when he released a video humiliating a Vietnamese tourist after cheating him of his money. Apart from that, Jover Chew also gained notoriety from repaying claims of $1, 010 in coins to a woman for a Small Claims Tribunal. His dodgy trade practices caused authorities to step in and shut down stores that had histories of scams. That incident also caused China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as several Vietnamese newspapers to publish warnings against purchasing electronics from Sim Lim Square. The influx of scam cases, coupled with negative reports from other countries ultimately caused Sim Lim Square’s reputation to hit rock bottom.
As Sim Lim Square’s reputation plummeted, the mall’s management has taken more steps to clamp down on unfair practices of retailers and ensure fairer trade practices. With these practices in mind, we sought to find out if it has made a positive impact on the various businesses, and whether the overall reputation of the mall has improved.
As such, our group embarked on this by visiting the mall on several weekdays and weekends. Expecting a “ghost mall”, our observations turned out to be the opposite-- Sim Lim Square was still bustling with visitors, both local and foreign, on both weekdays and weekends.
We wanted to find out what draws these customers to the mall despite its poor reputation. To maximise the manpower we have, we split our group into five teams, each focusing on interviews, web page design, content creation, filming and research.
Throughout the project, we emphasised on efficiency by working concurrently with each other. Our group also designed the webpage based on our preliminary research while interviews were ongoing.
We also sent out a survey to find out more about what people think of Sim Lim Square, garnering 174 responses in total from people of different ages and backgrounds. This ensures a fair response from the general population within a shorter period of time. While waiting for the results of the survey, we also went down to Sim Lim Square multiple times to interview the shop owners and also film the shots we needed for our video.
For our interviews, we focused on four categories of shops -- official retailers and resellers, pioneer and more established shops that opened since the start of Sim Lim Square, newer and more contemporary shops, as well as shops that do not specialise in electronics.
For official retailers and resellers, we chose shops like AC Ryan, Nubox, and Huawei because we wanted to find out how business is like there, and how the reputation of Sim Lim Square affected them. Apart from that, we wanted to know if they were brought in by the management to improve the overall outlook of the mall.
Meanwhile, we searched for older shops like Aik Seng Photo, Alan Photo Trading and Song Brothers. These shops have been there since the building was first opened, and we were curious how the owners feel about Sim Lim Square, and if there were changes in the mall and its demographics over the years. For these older shops, we wanted to find out how they are still able to sustain their business despite the advent of online shopping, as well as the fast moving and improving technologies.
We then searched for the contemporary shops and businesses that opened during more recent years like Xtreme Solution and NUphoto. We wanted to know why these businesses chose to set up their business in Sim Lim Square despite its negative reputation, and if the location of their shop affected their business.
Lastly, we sourced out shops that seemed more out of place in Sim Lim. Some of this shops include sex toy shops, tuition centres, and the audio cafe, Zeppelin & Co. With Sim Lim Square being primarily an electronics hub, our group wanted to find out why these shops are set up as they cater to a completely different demographic. We felt that these shops can provide us with more insights and a fresher perspective of the demographics in the mall, and if Sim Lim Square is slowly deviating from being IT-centric.
We also interviewed customers of various age groups to get the perspective of people from different contemporaries. For example, father and son, Andrew and Jason Yap, who are regular patrons of Sim Lim Square.
Andrew Yap is a professional photographer who has visited Sim Lim Square since the mall first opened. Initially visiting Sim Lim Square to purchase pirated discs, he visits the mall now to purchase photography items such as lenses and batteries.
Andrew’s son, Jason, is a student and professional gamer. Jason does not only visit Sim Lim Square to purchase gaming peripherals, but also to purchase items for school such as flash drives and charging cables. He attributes this to how he is able to compare prices between different shops to get products at the most affordable price.
With all the material we have gathered, we will showcase our work using a range of multimedia tools on our webpage.