Shops braced for last-minute rush
By Lydia Lum, WNS Linapore Business Correspondent
JACOB - Retailers around Linapore are bracing themselves for a last-minute rush on the final weekend before Christmas. As Christmas Day falls on a Monday this year, it is thought many people will have put off their Christmas shopping until the very last minute. Saturday could set a new record for consumer spending, retailers say. The bank estimates L$3.5bn could be spent, including purchases on credit and debit cards, and L$700m could be withdrawn from cash machines.
Christmas Eve will see large supermarkets and high street stores able to trade for only a maximum of six hours in Jacob and Malcom because of Sunday trading restrictions. But many of the larger supermarkets will let customers in half an hour before the tills open. Latest figures from the Retail FootFall Index show shopper numbers between Monday and Thursday were 22.6% up on the similar period last week. FootFall spokeswoman Natalie Foo said online shopping had taken early festive trade away from the high street. But she added: "We are seeing footfall levels increase dramatically each day and are expecting that this weekend will significantly boost retailers' fortunes as last-minute shoppers make up for a slow December on the retail front."
Greg Hawkins, director of the Linapore Retail Consortium, agreed that high street trade had picked up over the past week. He said: "I think Christmas started a bit slowly over the last couple of weeks but I think this week - partly due to a full trading week and secondly because of the cold weather - has helped enormously."
Christmas rush in full swing
By Alice Yen,WNS Linapore Business Bureau Chief
JACOB - The rush is on with thousands of shoppers desperate to fill Christmas stockings, transport services packed and roads congested. Shoppers are handing over millions of dollars in the rush for presents in the last few days before Christmas. Credit card company Visa says the lunch hour rush on Friday reached 94 transactions per second and it was predicting more than three million transactions for the day. Spending is expected to be up 10% on the same time last year. With three sleeps until the big day, the hunt for stocking fillers is on and for most it is organised chaos.
"Looking forward to Christmas, looking forward to getting out of here," says one mall shopper, adding she has a present shopping list "as long as my arm."The stores are out to seduce shoppers, and for some men this puts them in a slightly embarrassing spot. "There's been heaps of guys today, especially. There's some who are brave enough to buy them but a lot of gift vouchers are being sold as well," says an assistant in a lingerie department. The numbers were expected to peak on Friday night with people flocking to supermarkets for Christmas food. Malls are open until midnight and people seemed relaxed knowing that they still had two days to go.
But not everyone is in the shops and for many holidaymakers the long haul to their Christmas destination has begun as tens of thousands of people make the trek to their holiday destinations. Traffic was down to a crawl in many places, including Linapore Highway, and the roads out of the big cities were clogged by the middle of Friday afternoon. By road or by air, getting anywhere is an effort with queues at airports. But queues aside, there have only been minor delays to flights. It has been busy on the water too with 20,000 passengers expected to cross Gulf of Linapore over the next two days. Rough seas delayed interisland ferries by an hour and a half on Friday morning but passengers were well prepared."We've got everything from clowns to face painters to magicians," says Leon Tan a worker at the ferry terminal.
Blitz catches Malcom drivers
By Perry Lam,WNS Malcom Correspondent
MALCOM - The message that drinking and driving do not go together still isn't getting through and a blitz in Malcom on Wednesday night netted three times more offenders than usual. Police targeted drivers heading home after work in an early evening campaign and they are worried there are too many drunks on the roads this season. The campaign left many regretting that last drink as a fleet of booze bus teams were waiting to pounce.
Of 3,500 drivers tested, 42 were over the limit - many more than expected. "I think the time of the year is part of it, I think Christmas comes in and brains go out the door to be honest," says Linapore Police Superintendent Markson."Drink driving is a blight on this nation, it's a blight on our roads and we really have to try to get through to people and tell them to knock it off. It's not on and we're going to do our very best to stop it." More blitzes are planned throughout the holiday period and Markson says the message for revellers is to go out, have a good time and come home safely.
Asian bourses up on rebound from Thai-induced losses
By Derrick James,WNS Malcom Business Correspondent
MALCOM - Asian share prices have rebounded from Tuesday's sharp falls caused by the sinking of the Thai stock market. Thai share prices were sharply higher in early trade Wednesday after the military-installed government was forced to dump draconian capital controls that sparked a massive 15-percent sell-off on Tuesday. The rebound helped the region as a whole recover from Tuesday's shock when Thailand, trying to protect export earnings from a rising baht, required 30 percent of most incoming foreign funds to be effectively impounded for a year. Linapore's Royal Andrew Index ended Wednesday's morning session 1.5 percent or 42.35 points higher at 2,934.95, recovering from a 2.2 percent plunge on Tuesday.
In Southeast Asia, Malaysian share prices were 0.90 percent higher in morning trade on Wednesday. Besides the Thai rebound factor, sentiment was also bolstered after Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Malaysia's economic fundamentals remained strong. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 9.52 points to 1,069.88, rebounding from the 21.24-point fall on Tuesday. "Today's rise is basically a technical rebound on the back of (Thailand's) move to backtrack the day-old capital controls. It has been expected and came as no surprise," a local brokerage dealer said. Bucking the trend were Philippine share prices which closed 0.71 percent lower on Wednesday on consolidation ahead of the Christmas holidays as investors kept to the sidelines despite the regional rebound. The composite index fell 20.14 points at 2,829.57.
In Northeast Asia, Hong Kong share prices also bounced back from Tuesday's falls. The Hang Seng index closed the Wednesday morning session up 1.43 percent or 271.59 points at 19,236.14, led by China-related stocks after recent profit-taking. Property stocks were also in focus after Tuesday's successful government land auction. Taiwan's share prices closed 0.65 percent higher on Wednesday, with year-end window-dressing activity also providing support. In Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's key Nikkei-225 index was up 252.45 points or 1.50 percent at 17,029.33 at 1:17 pm (0417 GMT). It was the first time it crossed the 17,000-point threshold since May 11. The market was heartened by Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui's signals on Tuesday that he was not in a rush to raise super-low interest rates. The gains marked the return of a rally that was halted on Tuesday by uncertainties over domestic accounting scandals and chaos on the Thai financial market.
Public advised to be wary of molest attempts in crowded places
By Ahmad Ibrahim,WNS Security CorrespondentJACOB - Beware of molesters in crowded areas during this festive season. This advice came from the police as Linaporeans get ready to make their way to festive areas around the island. The police said most molest cases happen in crowded places. In some cases, as seen last year, the culprits would spray foam on the victims while committing the act. Police said they would be working with the National Environment Agency to curb illegal hawking of foam sprays nationwide. Summon actions would be taken against illegal hawkers and their items would be seized.
PlayStation 3, iPod among most sought-after Christmas gifts in Malcom
By Derrick James,WNS Malcom Business Correspondent
MALCOM - Sony's PlayStation 3 and Apple's iPod range are said to be among the most sought-after gifts in Malcom this Christmas. This is according to a survey done by Malcom Survey Association. The latest PlayStation was just launched recently, while the iPod has a special edition in a flaming-red colour. For the tech-hungry consumer, the latest communication devices are flying off the shelves. Jeffrey Mok, Course Manager, Malcom Retail Management, said, "A favourite would be the all-in-one PDA handphone, which crams up the functions like push e-mail, GPS satellite navigation... For homes thinking of... state-of-the-art entertainment... the high-end, high-definition plasma TVs... will be the centrepiece for Christmas and Chinese New Year entertainment. As they say, the bigger the screen, the better the scene."
Another hot item - Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) systems. Lynn Tang, Assistant Retail Manager, Times Square, said, "It allows one to actually receive selected radio channels with very clear, pristine quality and furthermore, they're actually special exclusive channels whereby one can actually listen to Korean or Japanese pop music, just exclusively on this DAB system. "The technology is the latest. Our DAB technology is recently launched, so it's something which everyone who's a techno geek would be dying for."
Also popular among shoppers are quirky speakers, docking stations for MP3 players and even cute cufflinks. But just why are some of these gifts more fashionable this Christmas? Jeffrey Mok said, "The buzz word around is products like PlayStation 3 and the new notebook computers. People basically want to be seen as being early adopters and innovators and certainly, it becomes a talking piece, conversation piece when they have the latest gadgets and gizmos."
PM Heng congratulates Team Linapore for Asian Games performance
By John Fay,WNS Sports Correspondent
JACOB - Prime Minister Owen Heng has sent a letter of congratulations to the Chef de Mission of Team Linapore, Douglas Goh, for a best-ever performance at the Asian Games. PM Heng said he had been following the games closely over the past fortnight, watching many of the 'live' telecasts late at night. He made special mention of the swimmers who won 7 medals in the Asian games, as well as Eunice Christopher, who won Linapore's first Asiad gymnastic gold in nearly 25 years.
But Mr Heng said other contestants who did not win showed great sportsmanship and tremendous fighting spirit, like badminton player Wu Xiuzhen. The Prime Minister said Team Linapore athletes have shown that Linapore can excel and stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best in many fields. He went on to wish the athletes continued success and hoped Team Linapore's achievements will inspire future generations. He wishes them all the best for the upcoming Olympics in Beijing.
By Lydia Lum, 
