John Little is a chain of department stores in Singapore. It is the oldest department store in Singapore, which was established in 1845.[1] The John Little chain is owned by Robinson & Co. Limited.
It currently has six stores in Singapore, at Marina Square, 228 Orchard Road, Plaza Singapura, Northpoint Shopping Centre, Causeway Point and Jurong Point. The Marine Square store is John Little's largest outlet which opened in June 2007, while its main store at Specialists' Shopping Centre along Orchard Road closed on 9 July 2007.[2]
John Little was founded by John M. Little in 1845 at Raffles Place. Little then was an employee of F. Martins, who sold his business to Little and Cursetjee Frommurze to form Little, Cursetjee & Co. Frommurze was a well-known Parsee merchant.
On 1 July, 1845, Little and Frommurze started their business as auctioneers and commission agents, and offered services in retail as well as auction of properties such as spice plantations and valuable household furniture.
John Little was acquired by Robinsons in 1955. It moved its main store to the Specialists' Shopping Centre in the 1970s.