Books Kinokuniya's elegant main store in the Ngee Ann City Shopping Mall in Singapore has expanded to 38,000 square feet and regained most of the space that it lost when it had to move one flight up in 2014, the Straits Times reported. The expansion, which includes new store frontage, was made possible by the move of a restaurant.
Kenny Chan, Singapore store director and director, merchandising division, told the paper he was "elated" when he learned the store could expand, adding. "Now our customers have the opportunity to look for things through self-discovery, at a pace and space that is more breathable."
The added space meshes "seamlessly" with the old space, the Straits Times noted; the company went back to the same mountain in China for granite to match the floors of the new and old sections, for example. With the increased space, the store has been able to increase some sections it had to decrease three years ago, including the Japanese, Chinese and French sections.
On Orchard Road, the Ngee Ann City Shopping Mall is a high-end mall that features a Takashimaya department store. The Books Kinokuniya store, which opened in 1999, is the company's flagship Singapore store and has been a template for many of the Kinokuniya stores outside Japan and North America. Most its 500,000 titles are in English; it also has an array of sidelines, a stationery shop and a café.