Change or Go Bust

With no end in sight for lifting restrictions on migrant workers, micro-economies that cater to these men must adapt or suffer heavy losses.

Behind shelves of hardware equipment and construction tools hide posters that contain pictures of the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House and the Singapore Zoo.

In May, Mr Mohammed Shahadat Hossain, 48, turned his former travel agency and photo studio on Desker Road into a hardware store, after Covid-19 crippled the travel industry and rid him of his customer base of mainly migrant workers.

About 323,000 migrant workers living in the dormitories were locked down to curb the spread of Covid-19.

This meant businesses like Mr Hossain’s, which specifically cater to migrant customers, saw their incomes disappear overnight and were forced to rethink strategies.

Mr Hossain’s hardware store currently targets locals, and business has picked up since the conversion. “I can’t say it’s very good now, but I try my best,” he said.

But some shops, including restaurants and tailor shops, could not manage the fall in sales and have closed. During the Circuit Breaker, Singapore’s Retail Sales Index, which measures the country’s short-term performance of the retail trade, fell as much as 52 per cent on year in May.

“A lot more shops are being put up for rent,” said Ms Emily Lim, a property agent at OrangeTee & Tie, who manages shop rentals in Little India. She expects more businesses to give up their shopfronts in the coming months as they can shift online.

Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association secretariat Kumaran Pillai said: “I think some shops will close down, especially those for tourists and grocery shops targeting migrant workers.”

But the association, which promotes the area and represents its merchants, said rather than reach out to migrant workers, it will now focus on local customers.

It is publicising events such as the Deepavali street light-up to draw crowds, and runs promotions for restaurants in the area.

“Our main concern until next March is to attract locals back to shop,” said Mr Kumaran. “As for the migrant workers, we need to wait for the Ministry of Manpower’s ruling.”

For surviving shops, some are holding out until the end of this year by changing the products they sell or targeting locals instead.

On Desker Road in Little India, shopkeeper Chanchal Hasan, 35, switched from selling clothes to groceries in July. He now earns enough to cover the rent of the store.

And in Peninsula Plaza, Ms Iris Htet Engine Thant, 21, and her family are delivering their minimart’s products to Burmese families living in Singapore, by gathering orders through Facebook.

Many stay hopeful that business will recover by 2021.

The ministry said it has allowed selected workers to run their personal errands outside their dorms on their days off from August. But the trial, which will gradually be extended to all workers by October, only includes visits to recreation centres near the dorms.

(Sep 2020 for Go-Far 2020: Singapore's Migrant Workers, a journalism module at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. This story was also published in The Straits Times.)