FairPrice Xtra, Jurong Point, Singapore
Overview & Concept
Xtra Lab is a 24-hour store-in-store concept housed within FairPrice Xtra at Jurong Point, marking Singapore’s first dedicated round-the-clock supermarket snack store. Operated under the FairPrice retail umbrella, the space curates rotating thematic editions of international snack products, with its inaugural run — dubbed ‘Ba Ba Dian’ (roughly translatable as ‘Dad’s Shop’ or ‘Corner Store’ in a nostalgic Chinese vernacular) — centred on Asian, predominantly Chinese, F&B brands.
The concept is notable for several reasons: it addresses a genuine gap in Singapore’s late-night retail landscape, particularly on the western corridor; it introduces a rotating curation model unusual for a supermarket format; and it leverages exclusive distribution partnerships to differentiate from standard supermarket shelf offerings. With over 600 SKUs across categories ranging from confectionery to ready-to-eat meals, the assortment is genuinely broad in scope.
Concept & Retail Format Analysis
The store-within-a-store model — sometimes called a ‘shop-in-shop’ — allows FairPrice Xtra to trial a speciality retail concept without the capital outlay of a standalone outlet. By embedding Xtra Lab within an already 24-hour hypermarket, the operational cost of the extended hours is partially amortised across the broader store footprint. This is a commercially pragmatic approach.
The rotating thematic edition format is borrowed from pop-up retail strategy and fast fashion’s ‘drop culture’ — the idea that limited-run, themed assortments create urgency and repeat visitation. If executed consistently, this could build a loyal customer segment that returns with each new edition, rather than treating the space as a one-time novelty. The ‘Ba Ba Dian’ framing is affectively clever: it evokes nostalgia for Chinese corner stores and snack shops, priming consumers to engage emotionally with the products on offer.
Product Category Analysis
- DIY Pick & Mix Snack Bar
The Pick & Mix station is arguably the most experiential element of the store and a strong anchor for foot traffic. Offering over 50 loose-item confectionery options priced at a flat $2.20 per 100g, the format democratises premium snacking: consumers self-select quantities, controlling both variety and spend. The self-weighing station with print-on-demand price tags is a low-friction checkout mechanism that reduces queuing pressure on staff.
From a price architecture standpoint, $2.20/100g is competitive for specialty Asian confectionery in Singapore. For reference, comparable imported loose-item sweets in specialty retailers often command $3.00–$4.00/100g. The transparent pricing by weight also encourages experimentation without commitment to full packaged quantities.
Highlighted Items:
White Peach-Shaped Gummy Candy — A format-forward confection that mirrors the aesthetic conventions of Japanese and Chinese novelty gummies. Peach-shaped moulding signals premium Asian confectionery sensibilities. The expected flavour profile: high-fructose sweetness with a faint stone-fruit ester, moderate gel firmness. These trend well with younger demographics (Gen Z, millennial) familiar with East Asian snack aesthetics popularised via social media.
Cherry-Flavoured Plums — A preserved plum product (suanmei or huamei variant), representing a classic category of Chinese dried confectionery. The sour-salty-sweet trifecta of such products is an acquired but persistent flavour preference rooted in Cantonese and Fujianese snack traditions. The ‘crunchy and tangy’ descriptor aligns with a lightly dehydrated, sugar-salted plum — distinct from the soft, heavily brined versions. A solid heritage product that appeals to both older nostalgic consumers and younger ones discovering the category.
- China-Exclusive Oreo Variants
Mondelez International has long used China as a test market for flavour innovation, producing SKUs that never reach Western shelves. Stocking these exclusives serves a dual purpose: they satisfy the curiosity of Singapore’s Chinese diaspora population who may have encountered these variants while travelling or studying abroad, and they create a genuine novelty proposition for local-born consumers.
Blueberry & Raspberry Oreo ($2.90) — The use of dual berry notes in a cream-filled biscuit follows a well-established flavour innovation heuristic in Asian confectionery: layering familiar (blueberry) with slightly more tart or complex (raspberry) to create perceived sophistication without alienating mass-market palates. The ‘tangy-sweet’ descriptor suggests the cream filling carries the berry character, while the cocoa wafer provides a grounding bitterness. This is a textbook ‘contrast balance’ formulation — sweetness offset by acidity, familiar format offset by novel flavour.
Ice Cream Matcha Oreo ($2.90) — Matcha as a flavour modifier in confectionery has undergone significant mainstreaming in Southeast Asia over the past decade. The ‘mildly earthy and minty’ tasting note is consistent with a mid-grade matcha extract in a dairy-cream base: the terpenic grassiness of matcha registers as ‘minty’ to palates less habituated to the distinction. The ‘ice cream’ qualifier likely denotes a softer, more yielding cream texture than a standard Oreo filling. At $2.90, both variants are accessibly priced for impulse purchase.
- Lay’s Chips & Cashew Mixed Pack ($22.90)
This product occupies the ‘gifting’ or ‘group sharing’ tier of the assortment — a large-format, multi-component pack designed for social occasions or as a considered purchase rather than an impulse snack. The $22.90 price point is substantial, and the value proposition depends on unit economics: four bags of chips and cashews across two flavours.
Italian Red Meat Flavour — The ‘Italian Red Meat’ descriptor (likely a translation of 意大利红烧肉) suggests a braised-pork-influenced flavour with Italian herb notes — an intercultural hybridisation common in Chinese snack flavour development. The ‘savoury and tangy with a hint of spice’ profile is consistent with a complex umami seasoning blend including tomato-based acidity, animal fat notes, and a mild chilli component. This is a highly engineered flavour — not traditionally Italian, not traditionally Chinese — but positioned as aspirationally cosmopolitan.
Cucumber Flavour — Lay’s cucumber variant is a Chinese market classic (黄瓜味), and its inclusion here is a nod to authentic regional flavour preferences rather than Western snack conventions. The ‘light and refreshing’ profile relies on a low-intensity flavour impression: the volatile aldehydes responsible for cucumber’s characteristic aroma (trans-2-nonenal, trans,cis-2,6-nonadienal) are notoriously difficult to maintain in chip coatings, so the effect is typically subtle. Its inclusion alongside the bolder Red Meat flavour provides effective flavour contrast within the pack.
- Instant Noodle Wall
The wall installation of over 50 instant noodle brands and flavours — starting from $1.50 — is both a merchandising masterstroke and a legitimate category anchor. Instant noodles are among the most globally consumed packaged foods, and the Asia-Pacific market’s diversity of formats (block noodle, cup, bowl, fresh-dried, glass noodle) and flavour profiles is unmatched elsewhere. Presenting them as a wall display transforms a grocery commodity into a destination experience.
Kang Shi Fu (康师傅) Spicy Noodle ($2.80) & Braised Beef ($3.00) — Kang Shi Fu is among China’s highest-volume instant noodle producers. The Braised Beef (红烧牛肉面) variant is arguably the company’s flagship — an industry benchmark for the soy-star anise-chilli braised-beef flavour profile that defines the ‘Chinese-style’ instant noodle category internationally. The $3.00 price point is reasonable for an imported premium-tier product in Singapore.
Laoban Sauerkraut Beef Noodles (老坛酸菜牛肉面) ($2.80) — This product represents a more specialised flavour category: suancai (酸菜, or Chinese pickled mustard greens) as a broth base. The fermentation-derived lactic acid character provides a sharp, vegetal sourness that complements rather than competes with beef umami. This variant has developed a cult following among instant noodle enthusiasts internationally. The addition of carrot and pickled mustard greens as garnish ingredients suggests a more texturally complete eating experience than standard block noodles. Its presence signals that Xtra Lab’s buyers are curating with some depth of category knowledge.
- Ready-to-Eat Meals
The inclusion of RTEs elevates Xtra Lab beyond a pure snack-and-confectionery proposition into meal-replacement territory — important for the 24-hour format, where late-night visitors may seek more substantial sustenance.
Yummy Hunter Mala Grilled Fish ($12) — Mala (麻辣) as a flavour system — the numbing spice combination of Sichuan peppercorn (hua jiao) and dried chilli — has been one of Singapore’s dominant F&B trends for the past several years. The ‘bold and numbing’ descriptor confirms a properly formulated mala sauce. The ‘smoky aroma’ from the grilled fish base is significant: it introduces a char-derived complexity (Maillard and pyrolysis compounds) that raw mala seasonings lack, creating a more layered sensory experience. At $12, it competes with casual dine-in options, which is a bold pricing strategy for a supermarket RTE.
Quan Ju De Peking Duck ($28.80) — This is the standout prestige product. Quan Ju De (全聚德) is the oldest extant roast duck establishment in Beijing, founded in 1864, and holds near-mythological status in Chinese culinary heritage. Its Singapore debut via a supermarket retail channel — rather than a restaurant — is an unconventional distribution strategy, but one that maximises accessibility and minimises the establishment overheads of a dine-in format. The ‘succulent and juicy’ flesh with ‘lightly crisp and fatty skin’ descriptor aligns with Quan Ju De’s hallmark hung-oven (挂炉) roasting technique, which renders subcutaneous fat while preserving moisture. At $28.80, it is premium by supermarket standards but modest by restaurant standards for a branded heritage duck product.
- Frozen Desserts
Yun He Yue Frozen Durian Gold Bar — Musang King ($9.95) — Musang King (猫山王, D197) is widely regarded as the premium cultivar of Durian musang king durian, characterised by its intensely bitter-sweet flavour, creamy texture, and notably lower moisture content compared to other cultivars. The ‘smooth and creamy chunks’ descriptor is consistent with frozen MSW pulp of good quality — freezing at appropriate temperatures preserves the custard-like texture reasonably well, though some volatile aromatic compounds (responsible for the characteristic sulphurous-onion-caramel complexity) inevitably degrade during freeze-thaw cycles. The gold bar tin format is aesthetically premium and gift-appropriate. At $9.95, it is competitive for branded MSW frozen products in Singapore.
Assessment Scorecard
Category Score Notes
Snack Variety & Curation 9 / 10 600+ SKUs, strong exclusive partnerships, genuine depth in noodle and confectionery categories
Flavour Diversity 8.5 / 10 Excellent range from heritage Chinese profiles to cross-cultural hybrids; RTEs add meaningful complexity
Value for Money 8 / 10 Most items competitively priced; Lay’s pack and Mala Grilled Fish test the ceiling but remain justifiable
Experiential Design 8.5 / 10 Pick & Mix bar and noodle wall are strong differentiators; self-weighing system is elegant
Heritage & Exclusivity 9 / 10 Quan Ju De debut and China-exclusive Oreos are genuine market firsts for Singapore
Accessibility (24/7 Format) 9.5 / 10 Addresses a real gap in western Singapore’s late-night retail landscape; five-minute walk from MRT
Overall 8.7 / 10 A thoughtfully curated, commercially savvy concept that elevates the supermarket snack proposition
Verdict
Xtra Lab is not merely a snack shop — it is a considered retail experiment in curation, format innovation, and cultural positioning. The ‘Ba Ba Dian’ inaugural edition demonstrates genuine buyer sophistication: the assortment moves beyond the obvious (generic Asian snack imports) toward a more deliberate portfolio that includes prestige RTEs (Quan Ju De), heritage confectionery (preserved plums, Chinese Oreo exclusives), and cult instant noodle variants (sauerkraut beef).
The 24-hour model is particularly significant. Singapore’s western corridor — anchored by Jurong Point and its surrounding residential precincts — is underserved by late-night specialty retail relative to central or eastern zones. Xtra Lab fills this gap while leveraging the logistical infrastructure of an existing 24-hour hypermarket, making it a low-risk high-visibility play for FairPrice.
The rotating edition model is the concept’s most strategically interesting feature, and also its most consequential risk. If future editions maintain the depth and exclusivity of Ba Ba Dian, Xtra Lab has the potential to become a genuine destination retail concept. If curation quality slips — toward generic imported products available elsewhere — the novelty premium will erode quickly. The execution of subsequent editions will be the true test of this concept’s longevity.
For the snack enthusiast, the late-night wanderer, and the culinarily curious alike, Xtra Lab’s debut is a compelling proposition. Recommended.
Practical Information
Address: 63 Jurong West Central 3, #03-01, Jurong Point, Singapore 648331
Hours: Daily, 24 hours
Nearest MRT: Boon Lay (EW27), ~5 min walk; Pioneer (EW28), within walking distance
Tel: 6790 1477
Halal Certification: Not halal-certified
Pick & Mix Pricing: $2.20 per 100g