As I was walking along Orchard Road taking in the Christmas lights this week, a familiar question came up in my mind: what’s really happening in retail? Beyond the headlines about rising rents, it was clear that performance is uneven. Some malls and stores were buzzing, while others looked much quieter. It reminded me that the retail story is rarely one-size-fits-all. That’s exactly what we unpacked in our recent podcast conversation with Ervin Yeo, CEO of Commercial Management and Group Chief Strategy Officer at CapitaLand Investment. We went beyond the headlines on rising rents, struggling F&B businesses, and mall performance, to understand what’s really driving Singapore’s retail landscape. As investors, this is a useful reminder that we often need to look past the surface and focus on fundamentals. The same applies to the Singapore stock market. Despite concerns about an economic slowdown and the perception that it’s a “boring” market,…