The Great Singapore Sale has just ended – have you bought anything for yourself this year? Even if you haven’t, take a second to recall the last department store you went to. Are they new stores, or have they been around for some time? Then takae another second to remember the department stores past. Do you remember the Japanese store Sogo? It used to be the flagship store at Raffles City – and in fact, I remember that we once used to refer to Raffles City as “Sogo” because of its huge unmissable logo at the corners of the building. What about an older store like Oriental Emporium?

Opening of Sogo at Raffles City, 1986. Image from National Archives of Singapore.

Laokokok showcases some of the big department stores that we once shopped at, including Sogo, which was supposedly a big hit with the ladies. Where once stores and branches abounded, the only thing that reminds us of their presence is the store tags:

Check out the other stores of Singapore’s shopping past in Laokokok’s Shops That Gone With The Wind.