Jem, Singapore

Jem is Singapore's third-largest suburban mall housing 241 shop units with over 818,000 square feet of retail space across six levels. Jem's name is an abbreviation of its original name, Jurong East Mall, and is a wordplay reference of the mall as the crown jewel of Jurong and Singapore's west. The mall is directly connected to the Jurong East MRT interchange station and located at the junction of Jurong Gateway Road and Boon Lay Way.

Major retailers include Robinsons (Closed to make way for IKEA), FairPrice Xtra, Cathay Cineplexes, Cookhouse by Koufu, H&M, Uniqlo, Muji, Courts and Don Quijote (Don Don Donki).

Jem's official opening was initially planned to be on 11 June 2013. Due to the tenancy issues, the opening of the mall was delayed. It was reported that none of the units at Jem applied for a Fire Safety Certificate or Temporary Permit (TFP) from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). To appease the disappointed customers who were affected by the delayed opening, Jem gave out discount vouchers worth S$10 between 10 am and 11 am that day.[1] On 15 June 2013, Jem finally opened and attracted more than 10,000 shoppers at the time of the opening.[2]

Jem was affected by two fires in August 2013, neither of which were related. On 14 August 2013, three employees manning the Ready-to-Eat counter at the NTUC FairPrice Xtra store in Jem shopping centre suffered minor burns when a deep fryer caught fire at about 10.30 am. Customers and staff were evacuated from the FairPrice Xtra store. The fire was put out by the sprinklers in the store.[3] Three days later, a car caught fire at the basement 2 carpark area of Jem at about 2.20pm, causing the evacuation of all staff and patrons from the mall. The fire was again put off by the sprinklers in the mall.[4]

Three people were injured after the first floor ceiling collapsed on the night of 18 September 2013. It was believed that the leaking water pipe had caused the incident. As a result, the shopping mall was closed. [5][6] On 2 October 2013, the mall was reopened to the public. Throughout the closure, Jem had undergone inspections, rigorous testing and certification made by a team of more than 40 people including hydraulic engineers and safety specialists to investigate and resolve the issue.[7]

Slightly less than two months later, a glass door at Jem shattered on 29 November 2013, which is next to H&M, a third of the glass partition shattered into pieces. No one was hurt in an accident.[8]

On March 21, 2014, retailers on Basement One and the third level of the shopping centre were affected by 11-hour power failure from 7am to 6pm. At least 36 of the 60 shops in Basement One were operating in darkness, with at least three shops putting up early closure notices due to the power shortage.[9]

On 17 June 2014, sprinklers started spraying water and flooding the mall. There was a malfunction of the water sprinkler. Water was sprayed from level 2 to the ground floor.

On 3 April 2015, a fire broke out next to H&M.

On 16 April 2015, Saladworks, which was located on the second floor, was flooded when a blocked waste pipe caused a backflow of water into the store.[10]

In June 2015, there was a leak on the kitchen's water pipe that splashed waste water on diners at Din Tai Fung restaurant on the second floor. On 11 March 2016, there was a leak onto the mall’s third floor which smelled like “kitchen waste”.[11]

In 2019, JEM underwent minor renovations at Basement 1.

By August 2020, anchor tenant Robinsons will be closed down[12] and replaced by IKEA in 2021. The first small-store concept in Southeast Asia, this IKEA store will however not have a children's playground and built-in warehouse. Affected Robinsons staff will be redeployed to Robinsons Raffles City and The Heeren, Don Don Donki Jem and JCube, as well as IKEA Alexandra, Tampines and future Jem.[13]

• Official website