With a shrinking customer base, convenience stores just need to do more to keep customers, said Yeh Jung-ting (葉榮廷), vice president of Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利).
Taiwan FamilyMart has expanded its product mix, including the introduction of pre-paid Lunar New Year dishes to serve those who don't want to cook the dishes themselves.
"Convenience stores must endeavor to change consumer behavior because creating brand-new demand is very difficult," he said. "Nevertheless, we want consumers to come back to our stores, again and again."
Even so, Taiwan FamilyMart and other convenience chains are slowing the rate at which they are opening new shops, as a result of rising rental costs.
"Now, the priority for us is to improve overall quality and shut down poorly performing stores," Yeh said.
shopping malls
The situation was less bleak for large-scale shopping complex investments last year.
In Taipei City alone, Miramar Entertainment Park (
In southern Taiwan, Uni-President Group (
"New shopping districts will soon take shape in these areas, following the model used in Taipei's Xinyi district, which boasts the Taipei 101 Mall, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi's three branches and the New York New York mall," ACNielsen's Wang said. "A cluster of competitors in the same area can attract a bigger crowd."
But SinoPac Securities' Lee said retailers need to find a new success formula -- tapping into the Chinese market or merging with rivals -- or risk losing investors' confidence.
"Opening department stores or shopping malls requires abundant investments and those investments will take several years to break even," Lee said.
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