Popular secondhand bookstore Beauty World Book Centre closing in Sept. 2022

End of an era.

Faris Alfiq | February 27, 2022, 01:10 PM

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Beauty World Book Centre, a popular bookstore among bibliophiles, will be closing in September 2022, according to a Facebook post by Facebook user Sharen Sim on Feb. 27.

The bookstore has been operating at the premises for over 30 years.

Owner purportedly increased rental fees

The reason for its closure, according to Sim, was that the new landlord had bought over the shop unit for a "huge amount" and was seeking to increase the rent for the unit.

Sim added that the owner purportedly intended to increase the rental fees to at least S$2,000 a month.

She highlighted that the bookstore is now only making about S$3,000 a month.

"So paying rent of S$2,000 means the bookstore owner gets only S$1,000 and that’s not enough to cover the bookstore owner’s expenses at all," Sim wrote.

Book store has an indescribable 'feel and magic'

As with any secondhand book shop, once you step inside, you can instantly smell the scent of musky old books, lined on the shelves, waiting to be picked up and read.

Sim described the book shop as a "relic from another era" that has a "feel and magic" that she couldn't describe in words.

"If you want to look for real physical books that bring magic to your life, pls come to this bookshop and support it before it closes forever," Sim wrote.

She ended the post by calling readers not to buy from Amazon as "Jeff Bezos doesn't need more money".

Speaking to Mothership, the owner of the bookshop confirmed that he is shutting down his business in September. He said that the landlord intends to increase the bookshop's rent from S$1,400 to S$2,000, which is too high for him.

The owner will be retiring, saying that he does not intend to move his bookshop business to another location. He also said that he might be holding a closing down sale in the last month of operations.

If you are interested to pop by and support the secondhand book store, here are the details:

Address: Beauty World Book Centre, #03-08 Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 588177. 

Opening hours: 11:30am to 8:30pm from Tuesdays to Fridays, 11am to 8:30pm for Saturday and Sunday, closed on Mondays.

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