Alternatives to Supermarkets in Singapore : 10 Places to get your essentials and avoid the crowds.

Panic buying? Crowded Supermarkets? Sold out Goods?



In recent days, the Supermarkets had seen an uptick in customers. This was due to a slew of measures that were introduced and made effective from March 27 to April 30. Along with the measures, were regulations on Safe Distancing that included restrictions on Shopping mall crowds and a need to maintain a 1 meter spacing in queues.

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In addition, due to past cases of panic buying where items such as toilet paper and rice were quickly sold out, a trip down to the supermarket does not guarantee you would get what you need. This is somewhat possible in popular supermarkets like NTUC, Giant and Cold Storage.




The major supermarkets had also come up with Purchase Limits to curb panic buying and address this issue.

Source : NTUC

The irony is that there are alternatives to Supermarkets when it comes to buying groceries and essentials. Most of them have no queues and are well stocked.

These are some of the places you can consider when you are out on your next grocery run.

1) Petrol Station Minimarts

SPC Choices

Most petrol stations have a minimart. The bigger ones had well stock minimarts that would have essentials such as toilet paper eggs, cooking oil, rice. Some even have a section for poultry, vegetables and frozen food.

SPC Choices

If you are pumping petrol, plan for a quick grocery run too. Get what you need and head home straight. No need to jostle to get in the shopping malls or even queue. Stores are open 24 hours too!

The downside, prices may be a tad higher.

2) Express outlets of Supermarkets

Giant Expess

Instead of the bigger supermarkets, head to the express outlets instead. Giant , NTUC and Hao Mart have express outlets. They are smaller versions of the supermarkets but much bigger than the Petrol Station Minimarts. You should be able to get your required essentials from such places,

Giant Express outlets locations
NTUC Express outlets locations
Hao Mart outlets locations

There are less variety, but you can get what you need.

4) Lesser Known Supermarkets

Hao Eccellente

There are more than just NTUC, Cold Storage, Giant, Sheng Shiong in Singapore. We recently stumbled upon Excellente by Hao mart at Kinex and Capitol.

Toilet Paper at Hao

It is a supermarket equivalent to the size of a regular Supermarket. Best of all, it is well stocked and NO queues when we were there today.

Variety at Hao

The variety is also wide with food produce from Korea, Taiwan and Japan.  It has fresh produce, frozen section and your daily essentials under one location



5) Speciality Shops

Tasty Farm @ Kinex

In some Supermarkets and at some neighbourhood centres, you may come across speciality stores that sell a variety of food. From Butcher shops to speciality stores that sell Japanese food, Korea food and veggies, they are a good alternative food source. The variety is also different from your usual supermarket fare.

Pop into them and you might be in for a surprise treat.



6) Neighbourhood Mini Marts or Mini Grocery Stores

Da Jia Hao @ Eunos

If you are staying in HDB, just pop under your flat if there are shops there. Chances are you would find a minimart. They may not be fully stock, but you probably can find essential items like eggs, cooking oil and toilet paper rolls there.

If you look around you, there are stores that sell fresh fruit, vegetables as standalone units. They can be found in neighbour shops and MRT stations. That could be an alternative for fresh food too.

7) Wet Markets

Wet Market Mountbatten

For your fresh food, you might want to head down to Wet Markets. The places are usually well ventilated. The downside is that it might get crowded.

8) Mama Shops

Mama Shop

Mama shops are mini old school convenience stores that is often located under HDB blocks. You can find them in the older estates. Some had even expanded to having proper storefronts and transformed into micro mini-marts.

These Mom and Pop stores have often been overlooking, but if you need to get your essentials without heading too far, they are just under your block.


9) Neighbourhood discount stores

Discount Stores

From Value $ store to neighbourhood discount stores, you can find them in almost every estate. Steps away from your house, you can get things like toilet paper. We found one with a full stock of toilet rolls with no queues.


10) Online

If you prefer to stay at home, you might want to choose home delivery instead. The main supermarkets have their own online stores. Alternatively, you can opt for online stores such as Redmart, Amazon and Opentaste. The only downside is that with the volume, it is hard to secure a delivery time.

Redmart
Amazon
Opentaste