SINGAPORE: The city-state’s renowned food scene has been assaulted with closures in 2024, upsetting low-priced hawker kiosks, mid-sized café operators, and Michelin-star dining places, who say prices have escalated and customers are spending less.
According to government data featured in a Rappler story, closures in the food and beverage sector this year come close to 307 each month, up from 254 monthly in 2024 and about 230 a month in 2023 and 2022.
Alvin Goh, co-founder of Wine RVLT, said he will not renew his tenancy contract when it runs out in August after nearly ten years of serving natural wines and bar bites in the well-heeled Asian financial hub of 6 million people.
“We’ve been in the red since June 2023. We’ve been topping up money to ensure that rent, salaries, and suppliers are being paid,” he added.
Like most food and beverage operators, Goh has been knocked out by increasing outlays for goods, utilities, rent, and salaries. The number of people who dine in his place has decreased, and those who do wine and dine are spending less in comparison to the year 2022, when he was still in the “euphoria of opening up” after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The percentage of closures to openings in 2025 and 2024 was higher than before and during the pandemic, pointing to a dwindling business segment.
Maybank economist Brian Lee assumes that closures will remain high in 2025 due to operating expenditures that have remained high, and many Singaporeans have decided to travel more than dine out, he said.
Glenn Chew, who works in public relations, said he travels to other Southeast Asian cities where eating out can cost 30-40% less than in Singapore.
The big worry is that these closures will lead to Lion City’s loss of its celebrated culinary heritage and its rank as an Asian food capital, said food blogger Seth Lui.
“We will start to see more fast-food-style concepts with automation and franchise brands everywhere rather than having unique, quaint concepts,” Lui said.
However, there are optimists like Jay Gray, co-owner of Club Street Laundry restaurant, which was established this year, his sixth undertaking in more than a decade.
“I guess I believe in the Singapore market enough, and I do believe if you focus on hospitality, which is the most important thing, you’ll be able to sustain it,” he said.
In a Reddit post entitled “What is with the Singapore F&B scene recently with all the closures?” one user pointed to rent as the principal killer of these eateries, saying “It is disturbing that many brands can sustain themselves in Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong but not in Singapore.”
