AUSHWITZ at Circular Road no longer trading, certainly under that name. No more dancing and drinking beneath the disco ball at Aushwitz. It had been a short run of a couple weeks, before the alarm was raised. For Beck's—the beer Aushwitz served—one needed to go elsewhere now in Singapore.
Late last month Aushwitz had opened in Chinatown in the city centre, spitting distance from the river, a stone's throw from Raffles Place and the famous old hotel. The Prince of Wales Backpacker Pub sat on Circular Road; Boat Quay one back. Raffles Landing right there beside the Asian Civilization Museum.
An error at the time of registration with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) led to a recording of the trading name. On the signage on Circular Road, beside the Beck's logo, it stood as intended: Aushwitz — no "c".
A certain ring on an online list had attracted one of the principals, whose shaky European history could be forgiven. Chap had heard the musical ring somewhere.
The business had aimed for a better class of commercial disco, not the usual down-market girly pub. They would never have run Viet & Thai girls from a location like that.
No harm done and none intended.
The Brit. F&B manager saw the difficulty and started an on-line campaign that finally ended in de-registration.
Difficult to strike the right kind of note; naturally nothing so important as the tag to get the punters through the door.
The European theatre had been a long, long way from here. In these parts the Pacific rather concentrated the mind, the Japanese liberators / invaders. (It was complicated.) Euro twists and turns well outta the picture. One could not reasonably cane a chap for such innocent faux pas.
No significant library known to this writer could compete with the stock on the shelves of Singapore National in Bugis, where marketing, branding and the psychology of the consumer was concerned; where thrill purchasing, extreme high adventure shopping & merchandising needed elucidation. Groaning straight shelves like none could possibly believe. As a consequence, on the streets, a paradise shopping destination second to nary a one.
November 11 2011, The Straits Times, p. B6 Home
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