Ah yes..... the Jewel is not part of "airside" so anyone can visit it, and when we were there it appeared that many locals were taking the opportunity to visit to see what it was like.
If anyone has been to the USA or lives in NYC, for example, you will probably have heard of "Shake Shack"... there is one in The Jewel (presumably the first in Singapore, if not the first in Asia) and the queue was insanely long, so much so that they had staff patrolling it to keep people in order! All that just for a cheeseburger!
I checked over the week-end and the last time I was there was 2011, then previously in 2007. Looking through the old photos was interesting, in 2007 the site where the Marina Bay Sands hotel stands was a clearance/building site. In 2011 the hotel itself was opened but it appears that Gardens by The Bay was under construction as I can see parts of some of the artificial tree structures in the background. Mum hardly recognises Singapore now from the days when she went to school in what is now Chijmes !
EDIT: Anyone know what happened to the Whiteaway store in Battery Road?