Convenience store and hypermarket operators are preparing for the start of Ghost Month later this month by launching food product sales and promotions, with an eye to expanding their share of the lucrative NT$10 billion (US$332.54 million) market.
Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), the nation’s second-largest convenience store operator with more than 2,900 FamilyMart outlets nationwide, yesterday launched its month-long campaign, with a focus on sales of Japanese-style snacks and instant noodles.
The company is offering 20 to 30 percent discounts on various snacks, instant noodles and canned products, and expects the marketing campaign to raise its revenue by 10 percent compared with the previous month, it said in a statement.
President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which operates the nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, is to launch its month-long sales campaign on Wednesday next week.
Sales of snacks and instant noodles associated with the festival make up about 20 to 30 percent of the company’s annual sales in these two segments, PCSC said in a statement.
The company added that it is strengthening its sales promotions given the change in consumer purchasing habits, with more people shifting from hypermarkets to convenience stores.
PCSC said it would focus on sales of smaller-sized products, as it targets nuclear families who find the large packages of snacks and instant noodles sold at hypermarkets too much to consume.
“We are targeting growth of 10 percent in sales this year compared with the same period last year,” PCSC said.
However, hypermarket chains are not bowing to the competition and expect to do well by offering more favorable prices and extending their store operation hours.
Chuan Lian Enterprise Co Ltd (全聯實業), which operates the nation’s largest supermarket chain, Pxmart (全聯福利中心), is to start offering promotional prices for 2,000 types of products from tomorrow to Aug. 20.
Its outlets will also provide 24-hour service on four days during the festival, with an eye to raising sales by 20 percent from the same period last year, Chuan Lian general manager Tony Tsai (蔡篤昌) said.
Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福), the Taiwanese subsidiary of French hypermarket chain Carrefour, launched its sales campaign on Friday last week.
“With buying sentiment slowing after the Lunar New Year, we hope that launching our sales campaign [for Ghost Month] earlier than the past few years will help boost consumer spending momentum,” Dream Lin (林夢紹), Carrefour Taiwan public relations manager, said in a statement.
This year’s Ghost Month, the seventh month in the Lunar calendar, starts on July 27, with the Ghost Festival falling on Aug. 10.
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