Singaporean woke up to the news that Robinson Department Store is closing down and peoples from all walks of life flock to seek for bargain sales others are there to redeem whatever points or coupon they might have. A British man by the name of Phillip Robinson joint hand with James Gaborian Spicer set up Spicer & Robinson in 1858 and after two years James Spicer left and in 1859 the company was known as Robinson & Co with a new partner George Rappa Jr, Commercial square was later named as Raffles Place and Robinson & Co moved to North Bridge Road and Coleman Street. When Robinson died his son Stamford Raffles Robinson took over the business in 1886 and in 1891 it moved back to a bigger store in Raffles Place, soon they acquired John Little and held the franchising of Mark & Spencer in 1958 Then in 1941 they moved to a new and bigger store Raffles Chambers and later the Japanese invaded Singapore and in 1972 a huge fire at the department store claimed the lives of nine people and after it moved again to Specialists Shopping Centre and in 1983 it moved to Centerpoint. In 2006 OCBC sold its shares to Indonesian Lippo Group but in 2008 Al Futtaim Group bought over Robinson & Co and in 2018 the store celebrated 160 years of retailing in Singapore and in 2020 all fell whether to blame on the Covid19 pandemic or the emergence of e-commerce well life has to go on.
