Metro Department Store

Metro's founder Ong Tjoe Kim originally from Fujian, China, migrated to Indonesia when he was a teenager. He joined the Toko Dezon department store and worked his way up to a managerial position. In 1952, Ong decided to venture out on his own and eventually opened the first Metro store in 1953 in Surabaya, Indonesia. Ong chose the name, Metro, after his love for movies made by film studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Metro opened its first Singapore-based outlet in 1957, at the site that is now the Singapore Treasury Building, after Ong migrated from Indonesia to Singapore, pitching its business at the wealthy housewives of Indonesia and Singapore.

A department store was opened in Hong Kong in 1960. The first Metro branch under the name of Metrotex opened in Liat Towers on Orchard Road in 1965, being one of the first Singapore department stores to carry imported designer goods. The branch was renamed Metro Orchard when it moved into the Holiday Inn Shopping Complex on Scotts Road in 1973. Metro continued to expand and set up more branches including Metro Supreme in 1971, Metro Golden Mile in 1974, Metro Grand in Lucky Plaza in 1978 and Metro Scotts and Metro Far East in 1983.

In 1987, Metro became Paragon's anchor tenant and would occupy the third and fourth storeys of the building. It opened in December in the same year.

Other than carrying in overseas label, Metro delved into developing Singapore's private label in fashion merchandise.

In January 2012, Metro Department Store was brought back to Surabaya, Indonesia, where it was opened in Ciputra World Surabaya, after 60 years of founding.

In July 2026, Metro announced that it will gradually shut down all the department store outlets - starting from Causeway Point and finishing at Paragon from October 2026 when their existing leases expire. The two outlets are Metro's last remaining large-format department stores in Singapore. The company did not provide closure dates and said that the timeline and scope of the transition remained under review. Metro is considering smaller-format stores, multi-specialty outlets, curated retail experiences and pop-up stores as it moves away from the traditional large-format department-store model.