Targeting the masses of Taipei County, Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA will open its third outlet, in Sinjhuang (新莊), today that will be the nation's largest furnishing store.
IKEA invested NT$1.5 billion (US$46.8 million) in the Hsinchuang store, which at 8,200 pings (27,060m2) is twice the size of Sinjhuang Stadium.
The huge space houses 55 realistic display rooms and more than 6,500 items, Justine Yao (
"We expect to greet about 20,000 visitors per day, reaching the 100,000 mark in the opening week," Yao said.
"We believe the dense population in Taipei County will be a big boost to our business," Yao said.
One advantage of the Sinjhuang store is its location. With the Sun Yat-sen Freeway and several bridges nearby, the store can attract residents from Sanchong (
IKEA will also provide shuttle buses that will pick up customers from nearby MRT stations during the grand opening week.
Even though consumption has been hammered by the growing consumer debt problem caused by abuse of credit and cash-advance cards, demand for furniture and home appliances still exists, Yao said.
Yao refused to reveal IKEA's sales figures, saying only that its local business has risen steadily over the past few years.
From its current locations in Taipei's Asia-World, Taoyuan and Sinjhuang, IKEA is planning to expand into central and southern Taiwan, but the locations and timing were undecided, she said.
She said the company was evaluating whether to stay in its Asia World location or relocate since its lease there is up in 2008.
Meanwhile, Hola Home Furnishings Co (
A major customer segment for Hola in the region is the growing number of young people working in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) and their families, Hola president Chen Yen-chun (陳彥君) said.
Another growth factor will be the high-speed railway, which will turn Hsinchu into a consumer hub for northern Taiwan, Chen said.
Hola plans to open two more stores by the end of the year, the company said. It reported sales for the first quarter rose 11 percent to NT$787 million from a year ago.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last