Singapore Expats

I'm in the U.S.A. My son and daughter-in-law and grandgirls are in Singapore. We have sent them Amazon UK stuff and egifts and even shipped a few things. Expensive, unsatisfying, impersonal: choose any 2.

Is there any place in Singapore equivalent to a U.S. Sears or Toys-R-Us or big department store? Anyplace that has a web presence where we could choose something online, pay for it, and tell our kids to go pick it up? Or, even better, have it delivered?

-----Paul-----

Toys R Us has locations in Singapore. Not sure how the web ordering works, but people have ordered my daughter gifts from TRU website and sent them to Singapore.

Otherwise, no. There aren't any decent online web prescences for pretty much anything in Singapore, except the government. Trying to shop online feels like the 1990s online shopping in the US.

Well, there's qoo10 (what used to be gmarket). But it's for cheap, useful crap for gadgets.

While a lot less "personal" my parents always sent the children money because as they told the kids, we really cannot guess your current likes & fads in Singapore so it would be much better that you could go and pick out exactly what you want and just know that Grandma or Pop Pop bought it for you. My kids always understood and while Grandma & Pop Pop felt the same way as you do, they understood and with the advent of Skype they got to see what they bought as well! Worked for us. (my kids are now 23 & 28 and the elder one will be getting married in January).

My folks struggled with this for the first couple of Christmases, but, they have gone with the send money and we can buy the gifts on their behalf and tell them. the webshopping presence in SG is truly awful!

I agree with the above re: Singapore and lack of options for shopping online.

As others suggest money works best*, and you can request that your grand-daughters e-mail you a picture of them together with what they bought. The latter should mean the $'s are spent on a gift and not frittered away or forgotten, and it can add an added element of fun too...


* You are probably aware of the costs of cashing/converting abroad a domestic US cheque. As a child I had an uncle who sent these to me and if he say sent $25, I was lucky to get even $5 out of it. If you are able to deposit one cheque in US$ in your son's/daughter's US account, and then have them give cash for the children it would be better. If you sent cards for the children, and the local cash goes in the envelopes... that is probably best all around that you could do.