Mustafa Centre
 

Not advertising it or anything :)
Just felt it needed its own thread.

Need something at 4am in the morning? Medication? A watch? Money changer? Magazines? Toilet paper? Fresh beef? Minute noodles? Ritter Sport chocolate? Have you damaged your suitcase? Buy a new one! etc etc

We all have our Mustafa stories. And if you are a tourist and dont have anything better to do at 3am in the morning (or suffering from Jet-lag), every taxi driver knows the place.

What are your stories? What have you found? Best deals?

What is the stuff at the intrances about?

I get the impression they are zealous at preventing theft. Fair enough.

Do they actually force you to leave bags ... they seem to search bags at the entrance and keep some.

These days they don't keep bags anymore. They will use cable tie to tie up the bags so that nothing can be put inside the bags and taken out of the shopping centre.

Many people who come to mustafa are in fact staff of rich Indians who have the task to shop at mustafa and bring the goods back to India. They come straight from the airport with empty luggage in tow. Main reason for the counters is to stow those luggages.
If you notice, you can also only pay for luggage near the exists.

Mustafa Center
 

Mustafa - the Walmart of Singapore. I was once told by a Mustafa employee "...except Walmart sells more items. There is no sale day at Mustafa... everyday is a sale day."

Interesting place to shop, but do it past midnight.

Little India generally. I guess with the drink laws it's a little less prickly at night. My wife use to feel pretty edgy about me taking her there late evening for a light night wander, particularly weekends. She didn't feel safe. Is it a completely better "vibe" now?

Had a friend visit for a significant birthday celebration a few years back. He wanted a watch, a nice, big watch that was distinctive. Something you jsut wouldn't run across for sale in the USA. I suggested first thing we hit Mustafa's. He found some things he liked right off. But he wanted to shop. I swear we hit every single watch retailer on the island, ultimately ending up right where we started, at Mustafa's. To push him over the decision edge, I agreed to buy one as well. We both bought Ingersol watches for decent prices. I do get compliments on mine - a multi-time zone piece. The brand, for anyone that knows watches in the USA, is a crap brand, but has been bought by some European outfit and is being marketed outside of the USA.

Definitely depends "Who you are," or more appropriately, "what you look like." Took tourists there, obvious middle/upper class white Americans. They got waived right on by with nary a look in the stringbags.

Mustafa Centre
 

Uk1, even on weekend nights I never had an issue with wife and daughter in tow (pre- and post midnight). You no longer have groups sitting on the road drinking booze; but on a Sunday there is still the crowd and the buzz is still there - just no longer alcohol fueled buzz.

Its 7:50am now... Im sitting outside Mustafa, across the road, having a prata. In a mmt some grocery shopping :)

Yeah, the Singapore authorities clamped down on the alcohol.

Thanks ;)

One more reason to go to Mustafa: the foreign exchange counters there have some of the best rates in town, particularly for subcontinental, Gulf and/or just plain obscure currencies. If you've got some Saudi riyals or Sri Lankans rupees or whatever kicking around, this is the place to get rid of them.

Are you sure they are better than at the Arcade? With my experience, to exchange MYR Arcade is the best place. However, MYR is definitely not an 'obscure currency'.

You can get decent rates for the ringgit all over town, although I don't think I've ever had to -- I exchange S$ into MYR after arrival in Malaysia, and use any leftovers on my next trip. But as said, Mustafa likely has the best rates in town for subcontinental and Gulf currencies.

Mustafa Centre
 

Mustafa had a rate of 268 for MYR this morning. What I appreciate about Mustafa is that I can go there and pop in without paying for parking and ERP and change some cash.
Sure if you want to change 1000s, you get better at the arcade. But ERP + CBD normally negate any gains in changing cash there..