Cat Socrates

Cat Socrates opened in 2008 and has grown to two locations in Singapore: the original Tiong Bahru shop at 78 Yong Siak Street and a second store at 448 Joo Chiat Road. The shop sells books and paper goods, home decor, kitchenware, fabric and sewing supplies, plants, bags and accessories, and vintage bric-a-brac, an eclectic mix rather than a single specialty category. Both locations are known locally for resident shop cats that wander among the merchandise; at the Joo Chiat store in particular, a cat named Zoozoo is often found waiting by the door to greet customers or asleep on a stack of books. The combination of an independent, deliberately mismatched design-and-gift inventory with live shop cats has made the stores a recognizable stop within Tiong Bahru's cluster of independent retail, a neighbourhood built around Singapore's oldest public housing estate.