Jover Chew has effectively “destroyed” Sim Lim Square

If you live in Singapore or Malaysia and do not know who Jover Chew is, you’ve got to come out of your cave and read something.

According to The New Paper, since the infamous incident that went ultra viral last year, about 90% of the shops in Sim Lim Square have been affected. Obviously the retailers are not happy; they’ve done nothing wrong, and all it took was mere one man’s actions that caused so much loss in their businesses.

A spokesman for the mall said, “After the Jover Chew incident, human traffic dropped by about 90 per cent, and it was only this year that the number of people visiting the mall picked up by 30 to 40 per cent from the third to the sixth storey…Some retailers are struggling to pay rent because there is no business for them.”

A simple check in Tripadvisor, a common platform used by tourists to plan their trip, shows that Sim Lim Square has only two out of five stars rating, and scrolling down the list of reviews will put off any tourists who apparently could have intended to visit the mall. Words like “ripped off”, “scam” or “avoid” peppered the reviews.

Unlike other common shopping malls like nex, Jurong Point or Tampines Mall, Sim Lim Square isn’t owned by a developer, but by individuals. This means control of the mall is not as rigid as those malls that most of us are familiar with.

On the bright side, there has still been no complaint since 2015.