Personal thoughts on NBC Stationery/Kinokuniya Singapore

Kinokuniya/NBC Stationery and Gifts Singapore seem to have gone on some consolidation or restructuring for a while now.

Seeing NBC Isetan, Takashimaya, JEM and Raffles City close down in a few years, definitely tells that something worrying is going on behind the scenes. But nevertheless, seems like Kinokuniya is fighting as hard as they can by integrating NBC Stationery into its consolidated Kinokuniya stores, like the one at Ngee Ann City and Raffles City, and probably the newly reopened Bugis outlet too.

The rise of e-books and paperless certainly isn't helping the situation, not to mention the weak yen in Japan, if that's relevant... and rental costs certainly suck right now, my parents already faced that in 2009, and it never gets better over the years.

I'm not really a books kind of person, but I love my plush toys, ever since I was a kid. Even as an adult now, I think it's nice to come home to a bunch of toys to have fun and sleep with. And it's good to let kids have toys and parents can guide them to care more about the real animals they see around us.

I've been to NBC Stationery and Gifts since I was a little kid, most often the branches at Takashimaya or Bugis. It's certainly sad to see the other outlets go like that. But online shopping has definitely made it tougher out there for NBC Stationery in recent years.

To say the truth, I haven't went to NBC Stationery in recent years, due to the pandemic mainly, and also, the toys cost nearly double of what they sell, say in Amazon SG (Japan), but that's my opinion. I don't know what's the percentage that rent is in the purchase price, but I think that rent is probably going to kill the last outlet, or if I was being more optimistic, hopefully the restructuring and tenacy negotiations of its Bugis and Raffles City outlets saved this last outlet since both malls are most likely the same landlord.

But if there's something that keeps me concerned, it would be their online presence. 

I would be surprised if Kinokuniya/NBC Stationery is using the same IT team as in 2021/2022, but I'll try not to criticise too much here.

This domain was NBC Stationery's domain from around 2016 to 2021, before it was taken by a domain squatter who demanded $395 for this domain, probably higher beforehand, I don't recall. While I understand the usual policy of not giving into ransoms and stuff, but how in the heck did this happen in the first place? No auto renew on? I don't know whether it was an in house IT team or outsourced to some SME or someone back in Japan, but I would have definitely firing someone for this.

Not to mention the previous domain nbcstationerygifts dot com was also taken by a domain squatter in 2016 (website operated from approx 2010 to 2016), like damn it wasn't the first time it happened? Jeez.

It could be incompetency, or even a lack of an IT department, but it could a Japan problem. Look at the recent news in 2025, Asahi Group got hacked, Muji's online store in Japan got affected by Askul Corp getting screwed by a ransomware attack, NTT had a data breach in March 2025...

It seems to be a systemic problem in Japan, and I wouldn't be surprised that it led to some of the practices here being flawed or outdated. 

While I still appreciate the physical stores and in-person events they put out like meet and greets, I think Kinokuniya and NBC Stationery and Gifts need to re-assess their online strategy, and it might seem to be the way to save themselves from the physical retail environment and rising costs and get back in the right path.

And that also includes cybersecurity, losing the domain is bad enough, I wouldn't want to see them being affected by a data breach or ransomware attack. If you are a staff of NBC/Kinokuniya, please take it seriously, one incident could collapse your brand in Singapore.

While I notice some progress being made to bring the plushies into the Kinokuniya site, the lack of photos of the products won't make anyone notice your product...

I don't know about your stocking system and specifics, but consider opening another site for toys/blind boxes like these?

Or if you want to stick to this (assuming you're closing NBC), please put them in the right categories (not English books) and put some pictures.

If you're a reader who likes NBC Stationery/Kinokuniya, I hope that we can continue to spur them to do better and be in the right direction, or we'll lose them like we've lost Times Bookstore, or Epigram's Singapore Art Museum store.

If you're a staff of NBC Stationery or Kinokuniya, please consider sending this to your management, or voicing out when you can, you guys don't wanna lose your jobs too, no? It's bad enough out there in the job market, maybe you can try to save your current employer.

And if the management wants this domain back, you can email me here. But know that I won't give it back easily, I've been watching this domain for a while, and was lucky enough to spot it on an expired domain auction. Your IT department better not fuck this up again. 

If NBC Stationery is closing down its last outlet at Bugis, then I'll put my memories of it on this domain's blog.

Lee

26 October 2025