Photo Essay


When the term Mama Shop is mentioned, one would probably recall a void deck store, probably dimly lit, items stacked and hung from every possible corner, with shelves of bread and eggs, newspapers and of course repackaged plastic packs of Hacks sweets.

Indeed, “Mama Shops” are a quintessential representation of local businesses in the 80s and 90s. These provision shops were first started by the Muslim Indian community and reflected in how “Mama” in Mama Shops comes about.

“Mama” means “uncle” in Tamil and would refer to an uncle’s shop as it is usually run by a portly Indian man.  From the 80s onwards, “mama shops” sprouted in void decks all over Singapore, expanding the range of items carried and have since evolved to become modern day convenience marts and stores.

Khans Family Mart is a walk down from Yishun Ring Road and has been operating for more than 10 years. Despite the mart in its name, the business fits the model of a traditional mama shop as it is owned by Indian Muslims. Upon my visit, I found out that the ownership has switched thrice over 5 years.

The mart revealed rent to be about $3,000 a month. The owners managed to afford their rent due to their regular customers, who are migrant workers from India because the shop specifically imports goods from India. Boxes of Mysore Sandalwood Soap often fly off the shelves quickly.

Another under-block mart along Yishun Ring Road appeared to be thriving despite numerous articles about the closure of several mama shops. Upon asking the employee in shop about the topic, she simply replied, “We are always busy”. I could infer that they had a decent stream of customers, mostly primary school children raring for ice cream after school.

Again, a key factor of Mama Shops is the convenience. Picking up cheap popsicles (known as bing bang or sng bao) on the way home is always an attractive idea for students with extra coins in their pockets.

Pictured above is a vacated mama shop that used to operate at Chong Pang. According to commercialguru.com, the takeover fee for a 150 – 200sqft store in Bedok is $20,000 while the monthly rental is at $1,391. While the rising costs in rent might not affect some mama shops, others have definitely felt the pinch.

And now we have a slice of the future. Pictured above is a new provision store that does not quite fit the usual “under the block” setting for a Mama Shop. And yet there is the familiar sight of wire racks with bread and brooms lined outside, items crammed into every corner, and marked-down prices scribbled onto containers and cardboard.

This is Jiang Li who works at that store and could not communicate that well in English, as he is a native from China. He managed to convey that the store was about 3 months old. Clearly, the store is more modern with bright white lights and a high ceiling but still works within a cramped space. Would these places still count as mama shops?


Will these thin metal racks of hard candy and dried fruit, or the racks of bread, stacks of eggs, continue to be a sight of comfort and nostalgia amongst the empty void decks, or will they disappear forever due to fierce competition from supermarkets and hypermarkets in the malls? We shall see.