Under The Angsana Tree: Remembering Sim Lim Square 森林商业中心

Sim Lim Square: 5 reasons it is infamous

The interior of popular computer mall, Sim Lim Square, showing the 2,756 sq ft space on the ground floor atrium. -- ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

Sim Lim Square has been in the public eye for a long time for all the wrong reasons. Recently, it was in the news after one shop owner returned a refund of more than $1,000 in coins. Its management has also appealed to the authorities to "take a tough stand against the recalcitrant retailers".

Over the years, the electronics hub has gotten flak for shop owners' dubious antics. Here are some reasons for its rise in notoriety:

Overcharging - This is possibly what Sim Lim is most infamous for. From video cameras to iPhones, various shop owners at the mall have been known for ripping off customers, especially tourists.
Threats and intimidation - Over the years, Sim Lim shop owners have drawn attention for being threatening or violent towards customers who did not want to buy their products, or wanted to change items. A video on YouTube (some strong language) showing a salesman spewing vulgarities after he was asked for a breakdown of the cost of a video camera was uploaded in 2011. It got more than 200,000 views.
Faulty goods - Another problem many buyers face at Sim Lim Square is getting products with defects. This usually lead to many wasted hours travelling to and from Sim Lim Square, with the problem sometimes never being resolved.
Misleading claims - Shop owners at Sim Lim Square are also known to say things just to sweet-talk customers into buying products. Especially with tourists, they would agree on a discount, but then increase the price and say that the discount can be claimed in tax refunds.
Pirated goods - Even back in 1989, Sim Lim Square was a hub for pirated computer goods. In one raid alone, on July 20 1989, about $3 million worth of fake computer products and software, including new releases that were not available in Singapore, were seized. Over the years, Sim Lim Square has been in the news periodically after shop owners sold pirated movies, games and videos.

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Sim Lim Square: The good, the bad and the ugly

It started out in the late 1980s as a nondescript building housing distributors of printers and TVs, for example. Today, the mere mention of "Sim Lim Square" conjures up notions among Singaporeans and visitors alike of a treasure trove of the latest IT gadgets and gizmos — some rare and avant garde, others testing the legal boundaries — but lurking with snake-oil salesmen.

Over the years, Sim Lim Square has been making headlines: It is where pirated CDs and illegal set-top media boxes had been flying off the shelves, and it has had its share of unscrupulous merchants. Last week, the mall made news again after ready-made computing machines used to facilitate transactions in Bitcoin and other digital currencies emerged in its shops. While business owners recall frequent police raids in the 1990s, the most damaging blow to Sim Lim Square's reputation came in 2014, when the employees of a now-defunct mobile phone shop were convicted of cheating dozens of customers through dodgy sales tactics.

Not all retailers are law-breakers, but it is perhaps this streak of notoriety and the mall's reputation as a "buyers beware" shopping venue, as well as the stiff competition among merchants kept on their toes with the ever-changing nature of IT products that keeps the place abuzz. In the six-storey complex located near Rochor Road, there are more than 500 shops squeezed into a 36,000sqm area.

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From a wood business to an electronics hub

Sim Lim Square, now an electronics hub, first started as a timber business. - ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

Mr Soon Peng Yam in 1998. - ST FILE PHOTO

Sim Lim 50 years published by Sim Lim Investments Limited, The Straits Times

Sim Lim Tower was built by Sim Lim Realty, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sim Lim Group of Companies and opened its doors in 1980 at Jalan Besar. It functioned as the headquarters of the company and housed an "Electronic and Electrical City" which now specialises in hardware-type products, cables and electronics components such as resistors and capacitors.

Sim Lim Square, which is across the street on Rochor Canal Road and specialises in consumer electronics such as computers, cameras and mobile phones, opened in 1987. The mall was recently in the news after a retailer tried to give a customer more than $1,000 in coins after it was ordered by the Small Claims Tribunal to give a refund. Its management has also appealed to the authorities to "take a tough stand against the recalcitrant retailers", saying it has been "disappointed with the apparent lack of measures which the authorities are able to take against these incorrigible retailers".

Here's a timeline of the company that has its roots in timber.

1930s and 40s: Sim Lim first started as a timber business by Mr Soon Peng Yam in partnership with two of his brothers. The name Sim Lim in Chinese comprises a total of five character roots, all of which are the same, and mean wood. Eventually the three men split up, and Mr Soon took over Sim Lim. He died in 2002 at age 90. The timber business was expanded to one dealing in other building materials such as steel, iron and cement.
1950: Sim Lim Company, which became a family business, was incorporated as Sim Lim Private Limited Company.
1960s: Sim Lim Co Pte Ltd diversified its business and started to be involved in building industries and other businesses, and became Sim Lim Group of Companies.
1970s: The company was badly affected by worldwide oil crisis, then recession.
1980: Sim Lim Tower opened under developer Sim Lim Realty. A $30 million project, it housed 158 shops in a four-storey Electronic and Electrical City at Jalan Besar, along Sungei Road.
1983: Sim Lim Tower was not enough for businessmen who wanted to set up shop, and eight of them went back to Sim Lim Realty and requested them to bid on another piece of land.
1987: Sim Lim Square, a six-storey, $140 million project, opened.
Sim Lim suffered losses in the years to come, and was taken over by other companies. It is currently a management corporation, collectively owned by individual shop owners.

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Memories of Sim Lim

Sim Lim Square has been in the spotlight recently, with special attention on Mr Jover Chew, the owner of Mobile Air, a mobile phone shop in the building

I WALK through the mall's automated sliding doors and arrive at a big and bright atrium. Like a trained soldier ready to do battle, I pause to scan the area - sideways and upwards - to quickly work out my entry route, my game plan.

My first movement is to head for the OCBC ATM near the lifts, calculating how much cash I would need for today's transaction. No credit cards in this warzone, I remind myself. This is Sim Lim Square, after all.

I look nervously around at who's around me as the cash comes out of the machine and I remember to opt not to display my account balance on the screen. I put the money in my wallet, walk straight to the escalators and go up.

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Remembering Sim Lim Square

Sim Lim Square used to house fly-by-night shops hawking pirated software. -- PHOTO: ST FILE

I threw away two bulging bags full of games on Sunday. Down the chute went PC classics such as System Shock 2, Baldur’s Gate, and FreeSpace 2. These were seminal titles that were still in pristine condition, with each game disc nestled in individual jewel cases.

Except that none of them were the original versions. They were all pirated copies from more than a decade ago when I had more time than money.

I had bought these games at Sim Lim Square. The electronics and IT mall is back in the spotlight again recently for all the wrong reasons. But as far as I can remember, it always had an unsavoury reputation.

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Sim Lim Square, Rochor Canal Road (since 1987)

Like Funan Centre (opened since 1985), Sim Lim Square, or popularly known as SLS, is famous for it large variety of computers, handphones, cameras and other electronic gadgets. While Funan Centre is considered more upmarket and expensive, Sim Lim Square caters more for the general masses.

It has, however, an unwanted reputation of scams and high-pressured selling tactics.

Consisting of six levels and two basements of retail shops selling all sorts of electronic and computing devices, Sim Lim Square offers the customers many choices at negotiable prices and bargains. However, the well-known IT mall has been plagued by dishonest and unethical business practices of some shops in recent years. Along with Lucky Plaza at Orchard Road, Sim Lim Square has gained a notorious reputation of “carrot-chopping” (scamming) the tourists.

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Sim Lim Square

Sim Lim Square has six storeys of shops, offering mainly electronic and IT products

Sim Lim Square (Chinese: 森林商业中心), commonly referred to as SLS, is a large retail complex that offers a wide variety of electronic goods and services ranging from DVDs, cameras, phones, video cameras, and computer parts and servicing.

Located at 1 Rochor Canal Road, Singapore, SLS is opposite to historic features such as the Little India district and close to one of the earliest HDB developments. SLS is accessible via MRT at Bugis or Little India MRT stations.

The complex itself is a six level building with a range of many varied electronic supply and service shops. The centre operates away from the main shopping areas of Singapore and as such can be seen as an area for bargains to be gained with cheap and inexpensive goods. Examples of this can include phones, laptops, computer parts, cameras and other electronic devices.

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3 years' jail sought for Sim Lim cheat Jover Chew

INFAMY: Jover Chew shot to international notoriety after allegations of his shop fleecing

PROSECUTORS called for the boss of a now-defunct electronics firm to be given a three-year jail sentence yesterday after he admitted to conning his customers.

Jover Chew Chiew Loon, 33, the "brains and architect" behind Mobile Air, pleaded guilty to 12 of 28 charges against him - including abetment by conspiracy to cheat and criminal intimidation.

On one occasion, when ordered by a Small Claims Tribunal to reimburse a customer $1,010, he gave her a bag containing $547 of the sum in coins - then dropped them on the floor of his Sim Lim Square shop and filmed her aunt picking them up.

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Police conduct raid at Mobile Air in Sim Lim Square, documents seized

Plainclothes police investigators leaving Mobile Air at Sim Lim Square with boxes and equipment. -- PHOTO: LIANHE WANBAO

Police raided the errant Sim Lim Square retailer, Mobile Air, on Sunday and seized documents and products from the shop.

According to Shin Min Daily News, eight plainclothes officers were at the shop for more than two hours. They left with four large boxes of documents and products. They also took with them three computer monitors, said the report.

The mobile phone shop has been under fire for the last few weeks over its unethical sales tactics. It re-opened for business on Friday, but apparently under a new owner.

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Govt looking into enhanced laws, stronger enforcement against errant retailers

The Government is looking into "enhancing our laws, strengthening the enforcement process and continuing with our engagement efforts" with regards to errant retail practices, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Teo Ser Luck on Monday (Nov 17), after meeting with Sim Lim Square's Management Council.

His meeting with 10 members of the Management Council came after they had sent a letter to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), requesting that authorities look into the problem of a handful of errant retailers at Sim Lim Square.

A press release from MTI said that during the meeting, the Management Council shared challenges they faced and reiterated their hopes that the laws could be strengthened to give such retailers harsher penalties.

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Only the signboard is different: Sim Lim Square spokesman

Mobile Air, the Sim Lim Square shop notorious for its unfair trade practices, is apparently no more.

In its place is a new mobile phone shop, which will be called HJ Mobile, said a man who identified himself as a partner in the new business.

When The New Paper visited the shop yesterday, Mobile Air's name had been removed from the space next to the shop's signboard where it used to be.

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Vietnamese tourist kowtows and begs for refund at Sim Lim Square shop

A Stomper sent in video footage showing the Vietnamese tourist kneeling down and begging for his refund at the Sim Lim Square shop making headlines recently, Mobile Air

The tourist, who earns $200 a month as a factory worker in Vietnam, was asked to pay an additional $1,500 for a warranty package on top of a payment of $950 which he had already made for an iPhone 6.

He had intended to purchase the mobile phone for his girlfriend as her birthday present.

In the video, a man, presumably the shopkeeper, is heard asking the tourist how he is "going to settle (his) money".

related:
Errant Retailers and Rogue Traders

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Sim Lim Square shop pays $1,010 refund in coins

Miss Zhou said the staff threw the bag of coins on the floor and told her to count them on the floor

She went to the mobile phone shop in Sim Lim Square to get a refund. After all, the Small Claims Tribunal had ruled in her favour. The shop gave her the money.