One of D’s usher leaders saw a deal online to visit Johor Premium Outlet and asked if we were like to go. So we thought, why not? We bought the deal for $29.90 – the cost of the coach and lunch was provided. In the end, 13 of us went together yesterday since it was a PH.
Johor Premium Outlets is a collection of 80 designer and name brand outlet stores featuring saving of 25% to 65% every day. The center is held by "Genting Simon Sdn Bhd" (GSSB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Simon Genting Ltd ("SGL"). SGL in turn is a 50:50 joint venture between Azzon Ltd ("Azzon"), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Plantations Bhd, and Premium Outlets®, the outlet division of Simon Property Group. (source from the website)
We left Singapore at 11am. There was slight jam as we approached Tuas link way, thank God we were on package tour and took the bus lane for coaches, so we were not stuck in the jam, unlike those who drove in yesterday. After clearing both customs, we finally arrived at the restaurant around 120pm for lunch. We waited a while for them to serve lunch – the dishes included shark fin soup, braised meat aka kong ba bao, sambal mixed vegetables of long beans, lady’s fingers & brinjal, steamed fish, fried beancurd skin with broccoli, cereal prawns, yam ring and fruits.
Personally, I find the soup a bit too salty and it smell a little fishy, the braised meat is too salty and must mix it with rice to eat. I don’t like the sambal vegetables as I don’t take spicy food and I don’t take long beans, lady’s finger and brinjal. The fish was good – it was fresh and tasted just nice, something to compensate my taste buds. The cereal prawns looked as if there was not enough cereals and it tasted like a mix between cereals and curry powder. The yam ring was nice – just that it didn’t had celery. I guess there must be a reason that package tours have to throw in more dishes for lunch or dinner as the food may not be that fantastic.
Finally, we proceeded to JPO, which was a 5-10 mins drive from where we had lunch. It was SUPER CROWDED!!! Being a PH for us in Singapore, many Singaporeans flock to this place. Along the way, the tour guide was telling us that the car park can hold a capacity of 600 cars but while we driving in, we can see many many cars parked along the 2 sides of the road. OMG!!!
There was CROWD everywhere, you need to queue even just to pay your parking charges and the queue was like 20+ people long. Every shop is crowded and there were many family who brought the old and the young along.
Though I have 2 kids but seriously, I will not bring them to this place cos they will not enjoy it as there’s nothing to attract the kids attention. There is only one pathetic playground that is the size of those we can find below our HDB blocks. So many kids vying to play there, ok, it was probably due to the public holiday that there’s so much human traffic. I see some elderly Ah Ma and Ah Gong queuing for their kids or maybe grandkids outside the store, which I thought that it was so mean. If you bring the elderly folks, isn’t it suppose to be an excursion for them? Why make them queue for you when you are young and have the energy?
The craziest shop was COACH – it limited a certain number of people into the shop and I heard you have to queue for at least 30 mins before you can enter. But the goods offered are all past seasons and they aren’t that cheap. If you get someone to get from US factory outlet, I think it’s way cheaper than getting from JPO.
Out of the 80 shops, I only visited Adidas, Armani, Cotton On, Espirit, Gap, La Senza, Lacoste, Levi’s, Nike, Poney, Puma, Raoul, Timberland, Pedro, Vincci and City Chain. It was really NOTHING MUCH. The stocks are old, D cannot find his size and it ain’t cheap. After touring 2 rounds, I was ready to call it a day and go Starbucks or Coffee Bean to “stone”. But I can’t even enter in to Starbucks as it was so crowded. It was the same with Coffee Bean. In the end, we went to the food court, only to realize that most of them also were there.
My conclusion: It’s not worth going JPO unless you are super free or wants an excursion trip. If not, it’s better to visit the premium outlets in US. For that kind of price in JPO, one can afford to wait till GSS to get that same item for a cheaper price. Not forgetting that JPO is new, there are bound to be lots of crowd at least for the next few months. Once the fad dies off, one may consider visiting if you really have nothing to do in SG.
