To better serve its upscale neighbors in Taipei's Da'an district, the Far Eastern Group (
The new outlet will trade under the name "city'super."
"Based on our survey in the district, residents have expressed hopes to have a supermarket of a higher level and in a larger scale nearby," said Susan Chiou (
The community has several regular supermarkets like Wellcome, although these outlets can apparently no longer satisfy local needs.
Situated in a residential area known for its strong purchasing power, the mall is adjacent to the five-star Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, but has not operated a supermarket since its inception in 1994.
"Positioned as a mega-lifestyle-specialty store, the under-construction `city'super' supermarket will feature a higher portion of exclusive merchandise to lure consumers," said Andrew Chen (
The Far Eastern Group also owns the Far Eastern Department Store (
Introducing upscale supermarkets into shopping malls has become the latest trend, with examples ranging from the Breeze Center's (
These stores are characterized by their relatively high percentage of imported, higher-priced commodities, which sets them apart from their competitors and caters to their respective target clients.
The "city'super" will occupy a 1,100-ping (3,630m2) space in The Mall's basement. The store's consumer products, including cosmetics, stationery and house furnishings account for 40 percent of the product mix, while the other 60 percent will be food, fresh foodstuffs and snacks exclusive to the supermarket, Chen said.
"As normal supermarkets tend to be price-oriented by employing mass sales, the `city'super' places more emphasis on introducing special and high-quality products," Chen said. "Lowering prices is not the main strategy for us."
In its product mix of more than 10,000 items, 70 percent to 80 percent of daily merchandise is imported, while 50 percent of food is purchased from abroad, with an emphasis of freshness and consumer tastes.
The company projects to generate NT$789 million (US$25 million) in first-year sales and launch two more outlets in five years.
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
RSS