If you’re craving some of the affordable, delicious and authentic hawker food from Chinatown Food Street, I have some bad news for you.
You’ll have to wait until the 1st of June to get it.
Yes, as heartbreaking as it is, the famous Chinatown Food Street will, unfortunately, be closing down for the next two months.
Chinatown Food Street Businesses Affected Badly By Covid-19
The famous food street, which features about 20 hawker stalls and restaurants selling some of Singapore’s best local dishes, has been hit hard by the Covid-19 situation.
Due to a decline in tourists and Singaporeans themselves choosing to stay at home, business at Smith Street has not been going too well in recent months.
They even tried to get customers to come back by offering amazing discounts and promotions, including a four-deal promotion with one-for-one offers on selected food items and up to 50 per cent off at some stalls.
Normally, a promotion like this would cause tons of people to flock over and enjoy eating the food as many times as they could before it ended.
I mean, we all know how Singaporeans are when it comes to discounts, right?
Well, the promotion that started three weeks ago ends today, 31 Mar, and clearly it has not done enough to increase the sales of these hawker stalls.
Visitor number still remain low, and thus Chinatown Food Street has no choice but to close.
Chinatown Food Street Will Close Until 1 June
The food street will be closing tomorrow, 1 Apr, and business will resume once again on 1 Jun.
Before you ask, no, this is not an April Fools prank.
During the two months of closure, there will be upgrading works in the area to renovate the stalls.
According to Shin Min Daily News, Mr Vincent Tan, the managing director of Select Group, which operates Chinatown Food Street, said that the stallholders and their workers would be sent for training or reassigned to other restaurants during this time.
He also said that rent for the stalls during the closure will be waived.
Other Efforts To Boost Visitors Also Didn’t Work
Apart from offering discounts on food items, Chinatown Food Street has also tried other ways to bring back their customers amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
Just two weekends ago, there were free trishaw rides, traditional coffee workshops and health talks on offer in a bid to draw crowds back.
The event was run by the Chinatown Business Association after sales in the area started to plunge deeply, because of the travel restrictions imposed in Singapore.
Thus, they were trying to get locals to pay a visit to the heritage site with these activities.
However, their efforts did not bring fantastic results either, and right now, the place somewhat resembles a ghost town.
When nothing worked, I guess they realised that this closure was needed until the situation gets better.
However, some of the stalls along Chinatown Food Street still have other outlets in other parts of Singapore, such as the popular Fatty Weng Restaurant.
They also run Fatty Weng Kitchen, which is located in Bukit Batok.
So if you’re craving some of their delicious seafood, you know where to go for the next two months.