By the WahLiao desk · Last verified 28 September 2026
Singapore has far fewer supermarket owners than it has supermarkets. One co-operative, FairPrice, runs more than 160 of them. One listed heartland chain, Sheng Siong, runs about 90. Cold Storage and Giant, two of the oldest names on the island, now belong to a Malaysian group called Macrovalue. Don Don Donki sells Japan by the aisle, and a handful of neighbourhood chains fill the gaps between the MRT stations.
So the short answer to “which supermarket in Singapore?” is this: FairPrice or Sheng Siong for the weekly shop, Cold Storage or FairPrice Finest for imports and the deli, Don Don Donki for Japanese groceries, and whichever neighbourhood chain is downstairs for the thing you forgot. The longer answer is more useful, because once you know who owns a shelf, you understand why its prices, its discount days and its fish counter behave the way they do.
Supermarkets in Singapore: quick facts
| Largest chain | FairPrice, a co-operative of the labour movement: more than 160 supermarkets across the FairPrice, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra formats (early 2026) |
| Second largest | Sheng Siong, listed on SGX: about 90 outlets (July 2026), with a stated target of 120 |
| Latest change of owner | Cold Storage (with CS Fresh, CS Gold and Jasons Deli) and Giant, sold by DFI Retail Group to Malaysia’s Macrovalue for S$125 million in a deal announced in March 2025 |
| Where CDC supermarket vouchers work (2026) | Ang Mo Supermarket, Cold Storage, Giant, HAO Mart, NTUC FairPrice, Prime Supermarket, Sheng Siong and U Stars |
| Carrier bags | At least 5 cents each at the large operators since 3 July 2023 |
| Senior discount days | Different at every chain; FairPrice runs a scheme on every weekday in 2026 |
The WahLiao Verdict
| Cost | Nothing to join. The savings come from using the right chain for the right part of the basket. |
| What you get | A map of who owns each supermarket, what each is good at, and which one to use for which job. |
| The alternative | Using one supermarket for everything. Convenient, and usually a little dearer than it needs to be. |
| Worth it for | Anyone who has just moved to Singapore, and anyone who has lived here for years and still shops wherever is nearest. |
| Skip it if | Your household already splits its shop by chain and knows its discount days by heart. |
| Last verified | 28 September 2026, against company announcements, the CDC and NEA. Store counts move; each is dated to the announcement it comes from. |
Who owns the supermarkets in Singapore?
Take away the logos and the colours, and the market has four kinds of owner. There is a co-operative with a social mission, a company that grew out of the heartland and listed on the stock exchange, a regional retail group that has just bought its way in, and a Japanese discount empire. Then there is a quieter fifth group: smaller operators who survive on nearness rather than size.
Each kind of owner wants something slightly different from you, and it shows on the shelf.
| Chain | Owner | Formats | Best at |
|---|---|---|---|
| FairPrice | NTUC FairPrice Co-operative (FairPrice Group) | FairPrice, FairPrice Finest, FairPrice Xtra; Cheers and FairPrice Xpress convenience stores | Weekly staples, house brand, discount days |
| Sheng Siong | Sheng Siong Group, listed on SGX | Heartland supermarkets with fresh meat, fish and vegetables | Fresh counters near HDB estates, big-family staples |
| Cold Storage | Macrovalue (since the 2025 deal) | Cold Storage, CS Fresh, CS Gold, Jasons Deli | Imported produce, deli, Western pantry |
| Giant | Macrovalue (since the 2025 deal) | Giant supermarkets and larger stores | Bulk household shopping |
| Don Don Donki | Pan Pacific Retail Management, part of Japan’s Pan Pacific International Holdings | Japanese discount stores with full grocery halls | Japanese produce, snacks, ready meals, late hours |
| Prime, U Stars, HAO Mart, Ang Mo | Independent operators | Neighbourhood supermarkets | Proximity |
FairPrice: the co-operative that sets the floor
FairPrice was started by the labour movement in 1973 to keep the cost of living in check, and it still behaves like an institution that remembers why it was born. We tell that story in How NTUC FairPrice Turned Inflation, Co-operative Retail and Everyday Groceries Into a National Supermarket Culture. It is not a government supermarket, which surprises many newcomers. It is a co-operative within the NTUC family, which is why union and Link members earn Linkpoints and why its discount schemes run on almost every weekday.
The group runs more than 160 supermarkets under three names. FairPrice is the neighbourhood format. FairPrice Finest is the upmarket one, with more imported produce, a bigger deli and a proper wine aisle. FairPrice Xtra is the hypermarket, where you can buy the rice cooker with the rice. Around them sit the Cheers and FairPrice Xpress convenience stores and the Unity pharmacies.
What the co-operative structure buys you is predictability. In 2026 FairPrice has run five weekday discount schemes for seniors and CHAS cardholders, froze the price of all its chilled pork and a list of popular seafood and vegetables from late January to early March, and kept a price freeze on more than 500 daily essentials until the end of August. None of that makes every item the cheapest on the island. It does make FairPrice the chain that the others are measured against.
Use it for: the weekly staples shop, the senior and CHAS discount days, and spending CDC supermarket vouchers.
Sheng Siong: the heartland’s wet-and-dry specialist
Sheng Siong is the chain that grew up in the HDB estates and never really left them. Its stores are designed to give you both halves of the old market trip in one room: the wet half of fresh meat, fish and vegetables, and the dry half of rice, sauces and detergent. If your nearest supermarket has a busy fish counter and a queue that knows the fishmonger by name, there is a fair chance it is a Sheng Siong.
It is also the chain growing fastest. Sheng Siong opened 12 stores in 2025, operates about 90 today, and has said it wants 120. In July 2026 it broke ground on a S$520 million headquarters and distribution centre in Sungei Kadut, due in 2029 and built to supply more than 120 stores. That is the tell of a serious grocer: it expands the building behind the shops before it expands the shops.
Its own brands now run to 28 labels and more than 2,000 products, which is where much of its margin, and some of your savings, comes from.
Use it for: fresh meat and fish without a separate market trip, big-family staples, and seniors’ shopping on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Cold Storage and Giant: two old names, one new owner
Cold Storage is the oldest supermarket name most Singaporeans know, and its name is its history. It arrived with refrigeration, imported meat and the radical idea that food could travel a very long way and still be good; our history of how Cold Storage brought refrigeration and modern supermarket shopping to Singapore covers that century. Today it trades as Cold Storage, CS Fresh, CS Gold and Jasons Deli, which run from everyday imports up to the kind of cheese counter that makes you check your bank balance.
Giant is the value sibling: larger stores, bulk packs and household goods, a place for the monthly stock-up rather than the Tuesday top-up.
In March 2025, DFI Retail Group agreed to sell both chains to Macrovalue, a Malaysian retail group, for S$125 million. At the time of the deal that meant 48 Cold Storage stores, 41 Giant stores and two distribution centre leases. Macrovalue already owned Cold Storage and Giant in Malaysia, and its owners said they would use that regional supply chain and buying power to improve range and value here. Whether that shows up as lower prices, wider ranges or simply fewer gaps on the shelf is the thing to watch over the coming year.
Use them for: imported fruit, deli, Western pantry staples and wine at Cold Storage; bulk household shopping at Giant.
Don Don Donki: Japan, by the aisle
Don Don Donki is run here by Pan Pacific Retail Management, part of Japan’s Pan Pacific International Holdings, and it is less a supermarket than a Japanese grocery hall with a theme song. The produce, the meat, the roasted sweet potatoes, the bento and the snack walls are the point. So are the hours: many outlets stay open late, which makes Donki the natural home of the 11pm “just one packet” visit. We traced how Don Don Donki turned Japanese groceries into retail theatre in The Memory.
One practical note. Don Don Donki is not on the 2026 list of supermarkets that accept CDC supermarket vouchers, so plan a voucher shop elsewhere.
Use it for: Japanese groceries, fruit that is sold as a gift, and late-night ready meals.
The neighbourhood chains: Prime, U Stars, HAO Mart and Ang Mo
Then there are the chains you use because they are there. Prime Supermarket, U Stars, HAO Mart and Ang Mo Supermarket are smaller operators who win on distance: the store at the foot of the block, open when you need it, stocked with enough. All four accept CDC supermarket vouchers in 2026. HAO Mart and Ang Mo Supermarket have reported annual turnovers below the S$100 million line, so the mandatory bag charge does not apply to them, though a store may still choose to charge.
Use them for: the top-up shop, the forgotten eggs, and the evening when the big supermarket is one bus stop too far.
Which supermarket should you use for what?
The mistake most households make is not choosing the wrong supermarket. It is using one supermarket for every job. Here is how the jobs divide.
| The job | Start here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rice, oil, eggs, paper and detergent every week | FairPrice or Sheng Siong | Scale, house brands and discount days on the things you buy most |
| Fresh meat and fish near an HDB estate | Sheng Siong, or the wet market | Wet-and-dry stores put the fresh counters beside the dry aisles |
| Imported fruit, cheese, deli and wine | Cold Storage, FairPrice Finest, Jasons Deli | Range, and staff who know what a burrata is |
| Japanese groceries and ready meals | Don Don Donki | Japan-sourced range and late opening |
| The monthly household stock-up | FairPrice Xtra or Giant | Bulk packs and household goods under one roof |
| Senior and CHAS discounts | Depends on the day | See the day-by-day calendar |
| Spending CDC supermarket vouchers | Any of the eight participating chains | Don Don Donki is not on the list |
| Heavy items delivered to the door | The chains’ own online stores | Batch into one order that clears the free-delivery line |
Why does Singapore have so few big supermarket chains?
Because a supermarket is not really a shop. It is the visible end of a distribution network: importers, cold rooms, distribution centres, trucks and forecasts, with a brightly lit room at the very end. We take that machine apart in How Supermarket Works: The Grocery Distribution Network.
On an island that imports most of its food, the expensive part of a supermarket chain is behind the wall, not on the shop floor. A chain needs enough stores to justify a distribution centre, and a distribution centre to justify more stores. That loop rewards size. It is why the market has settled around a few large operators, why a newcomer buys an existing chain rather than building one, and why Sheng Siong’s largest investment in its history is a warehouse rather than a flagship.
Rent does the rest. Supermarket space in a mall or a town centre is expensive, and a supermarket earns a thin margin on each item. Only a chain with scale in buying, logistics and its own brands can pay the rent and still keep the price of eggs where shoppers will tolerate it.
What is changing for Singapore supermarkets in 2026?
- Sheng Siong is expanding. Twelve new stores in 2025, about 90 in operation, a stated target of 120, and a new distribution centre due in 2029.
- Cold Storage and Giant have a new owner. Macrovalue’s regional buying power is the variable to watch on price and range.
- Cost-of-living support arrived early. The June 2026 CDC Vouchers, first scheduled for January 2027, were brought forward; every Singaporean household received $250 for participating supermarkets, to be spent by 31 December 2027.
- FairPrice extended its discount schemes. The seniors, Pioneer and Merdeka Generation, CHAS Blue and CHAS Orange discounts run to 31 December 2026.
- New labels are coming. From mid-2027, Nutri-Grade labels extend from drinks to salt, sauces, seasonings, instant noodles and cooking oil. See what supermarket date and health labels really mean.
Supermarket, minimart or convenience store: what is the difference?
The difference is range, and range is paid for in the price of each gram. A supermarket carries fresh, chilled, frozen and dry goods under a Singapore Food Agency supermarket licence. A minimart or provision shop carries the essentials of daily life, mostly dry and packaged, close to the block. A convenience store carries what you need in the next hour, at any hour.
As a rule, the closer and smaller the shop, the more you pay per unit. That is not a scandal. It is the price of proximity, and sometimes proximity is worth it. The trick is to buy the heavy, predictable part of your basket where it is cheapest and to use the corner shop for what cannot wait.
Frequently asked questions
What is the largest supermarket chain in Singapore?
FairPrice, run by the NTUC FairPrice Co-operative under FairPrice Group, with more than 160 supermarkets across its FairPrice, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra formats as of early 2026. Sheng Siong is second, with about 90 outlets.
Who owns Cold Storage and Giant in Singapore?
Macrovalue, a Malaysian retail group, which agreed in March 2025 to buy both chains from DFI Retail Group for S$125 million. Macrovalue already ran Cold Storage and Giant in Malaysia.
Is FairPrice a government supermarket?
No. It is a co-operative founded by the labour movement in 1973 with a mission to moderate the cost of living. It takes part in public schemes such as the CDC vouchers, but it is not a government agency.
Which supermarkets accept CDC vouchers in 2026?
The supermarket portion can be spent at Ang Mo Supermarket, Cold Storage, Giant, HAO Mart, NTUC FairPrice, Prime Supermarket, Sheng Siong and U Stars. Check the official list at go.gov.sg/cdcvouchers before you shop, because participating merchants can change.
Which supermarket in Singapore is the cheapest?
It depends on what is in your basket, and anyone who gives you a one-word answer has not priced one. WahLiao prices a fixed basket for the WahLiao Price Index, and our cheapest-supermarket verdict will be built on those receipts rather than on impressions.
Read next
This page belongs to How Supermarket Works, our series on the grocery network behind the shelf. Continue with senior citizen discounts at Singapore supermarkets, day by day, how to save money on groceries in Singapore, and the 5-cent carrier bag charge.
Sources checked 28 September 2026: FairPrice Group newsroom; Sheng Siong Group results and announcements on SGX; the DFI Retail Group and Macrovalue announcement of 24 March 2025 as reported by Singapore and Malaysian media; the CDC Vouchers Scheme; the National Environment Agency. Last updated 28 September 2026.
