Core Pacific City ready to give away automobiles

Taipei's newest entry in the shopping mall wars plans to topple the competition by giving away 100 new cars, a Core Pacific representative said yesterday.

"In order to compete with the attractive promotional events offered by other shopping centers, we decide to pull out our secret weapon -- a lucky draw for 100 new cars," said Chao Ai-ching (趙愛傾), spokesperson for Core Pacific City.

The new mall will use the first 10 days after opening -- Nov. 23 to Dec. 5 -- to give away 10 automobiles each day to its customers.

Chao declined to elaborate on the details of the plan, but said they are finalizing the purchase agreements with several car dealers that are cooperating on the event.

"The dealers' vehicles will be exhibited in our shopping center as well," she said.

Core Pacific is planning a three-day soft opening from Nov. 19 to 21.

With an initial investment of NT$24 billion, the 24,420m2, 19-floor mall has signed on four department stores, at least 400 retailers and a 13 screen "Cinemark" movie theater, which will be open 24 hours a day.

"We estimate that the soft opening will generate NT$450 million and expect 300,000 customers will visit us during the first day," said Kim Wu (吳財琴), a vice executive manager at Core Pacific City.

"We believe the first three-days are crucial, so we invested NT$150 million to promote the grand opening," Wu said.

Core Pacific is providing free shuttle bus service on the weekends.

"We have allocated NT$500,000 per month for the free bus service, and the public can take our buses around the city even if they don't plan to visit our mall," Chao said.

The six shuttle routes began operating yesterday on Chunghsiao E. Road, Hsinyi Road, Sungshan Road, Mingsheng E. Road and Nanking E. Road.

Located at the intersection of Civil Boulevard and Tungning Road, Core Pacific City is within walking distance of rivals Breeze Mall (微風廣場) and Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光).

Frontman for Breeze Center, Jason Tsai (蔡明澤), told the Taipei Times last week that the new facility has seen sales of NT$350 million over the past 11 days or NT$32 million per day. He said the numbers were proof that "we are very competitive."

Meanwhile, the most profitable department store in Taiwan -- Pacific Sogo -- reported sales of NT$16.8 billion last year. November is the month many of the top retailers battle for the biggest sales of the year.

"We have spent 15 percent of our budget on Promotions to attract customers to our store," Lee Kuang-rong (李光榮), vice president of Pacific Sogo said last week.