<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Cluttered walkways at malls pose danger
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I WISH to highlight how crowded and unsafe our shopping centres and supermarkets have become.
Popular malls like Bugis Junction and Tampines Mall are packed full of shoppers. While we cannot control the number of shoppers going in, mall owners have made things worse by filling passageways with carts and wagons.
Plaza Singapura even has an enclosed display at its main entrance.
The recent Hokkaido Fair at the atrium of Tampines Mall was the worst I have seen in terms of crowding and fire safety. There was no space to walk and many shoppers simply avoided the atrium altogether. Even the shoppers within the atrium were moving at a crawl.
Food and beverage outlets at Bugis Junction and other malls also take up sidewalk space with tables and chairs, leaving shoppers with little space to walk and creating congestion. When it rains, shoppers have to walk outside the sheltered area when passing by the outdoor food outlets.
The situation is similar at NTUC FairPrice outlets. During peak hours, there is hardly any space to move as FairPrice allows promotion counters to fill up already narrow walkways.
Much available space is also taken up by stacks of product displays, many of which are duplicated at other points in the supermarket.
The practice of concentrating on profits at the cost of safety must end.
Chan Chi Yung
Neh!
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I WISH to highlight how crowded and unsafe our shopping centres and supermarkets have become.
Popular malls like Bugis Junction and Tampines Mall are packed full of shoppers. While we cannot control the number of shoppers going in, mall owners have made things worse by filling passageways with carts and wagons.
Plaza Singapura even has an enclosed display at its main entrance.
The recent Hokkaido Fair at the atrium of Tampines Mall was the worst I have seen in terms of crowding and fire safety. There was no space to walk and many shoppers simply avoided the atrium altogether. Even the shoppers within the atrium were moving at a crawl.
Food and beverage outlets at Bugis Junction and other malls also take up sidewalk space with tables and chairs, leaving shoppers with little space to walk and creating congestion. When it rains, shoppers have to walk outside the sheltered area when passing by the outdoor food outlets.
The situation is similar at NTUC FairPrice outlets. During peak hours, there is hardly any space to move as FairPrice allows promotion counters to fill up already narrow walkways.
Much available space is also taken up by stacks of product displays, many of which are duplicated at other points in the supermarket.
The practice of concentrating on profits at the cost of safety must end.
Chan Chi Yung
Neh!
