Government over-regulation has had the most negative impact on the businesses of laundromat store owners over the past two years, even before the cross-strait service trade agreement became a controversial issue
Among other regulations, the government has recently imposed a rule that requires laundromats to close by 10pm nightly in a bid to reduce noise pollution.
However, operators say it is yet another example of an “unreasonable policy” from the government.
“The law has flaws. It demands laundromats close by 10pm, not based on the level of noise from the machines, but due to complaints from a few people,” said Lin Fu-shan (林富山), general manager of the nation’s largest laundromat chain store Asian Laundry Equipment Co Ltd (宏閩), in a recent interview with the Taipei Times.
“It is an irresponsible government that implements unreasonable policies,” said Lin, who runs nearly 1,000 laundromats across the nation.
Laundromats have become popular in Taiwan, especially in urban areas, over the past decade. For city dwellers who have no washing machines at home, the machines in nearby laundromats are just what they need, a cheap and convenient way to get their washing done.
However, since last year, the government has received more than 710 complaints from the public about the noise generated by washing machines, prompting the governments of Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan County and Greater Tainan to restrict laundromats from operating later than 10pm, in accordance with the Noise Control Act (噪音管制法) that was revised in 2008.
If store owners are found to be in violation of the law, they receive a NT$3,000 (US$100) fine from city environmental protection authorities.
So far, the governments of Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan County have issued more than 27 fines to laundromat operators.
Lin, who was fined by the Taipei City Government earlier this year, said his monthly revenue from each store decreased by 33 to 50 percent — between NT$100,000 and NT$150,000 a month after being forced to shorten business hours.
While the government’s new rules are aimed at enhancing the quality of life, not every resident of metropolitan areas appreciates the move, with many claiming the policy caused them inconvenience.
“Customers told me they need to do laundry at 10pm or later as they worked during the daytime,” said the owner of a laundromat chain store Chaorui Machinery Engineering Ltd (超瑞) in Taipei’s Daan District (大安).
“I posted a note on the wall of my laundromat [stating] that customers should finish doing their laundry by 10pm, but received a lot of criticism. So, I’m still operating 24 hours-a-day,” said the person surnamed Chen (陳).
Chen said he invested NT$2 million in his only laundromat store in 2012 and originally expected to start generating return in six years.
Now, because of the new rules, Chen said it might take more than eight years for his investment to start generating a return.
It is “totally unfair” as the machines installed at the store are the latest models in the market and do not create much noise, Chen said. “The government is reckless. The rules are unnecessary.”
Lu Chin-mu (呂金木), 60, a retiree who goes to a laundromat in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) on a weekly basis, said the government’s new policy is unfavorable to the majority of society, including himself.
“Sometimes it is difficult to find a washing machine that is not occupied for heavy-duty laundry, especially over the weekend or on holidays,” Lu said. “The rules make me worry about whether I should do laundry earlier than 10pm. They have forced me to change my daily schedule.”
As the cost of living rises, an increasing number of the public opt to use coin-operated washing machines and dryers instead of buying their own machines.
Another reason for the growing popularity of laundromats is that many people have little space to wash or dry clothes, especially in wintertime.
“We should let the market stay accessible to everyone, instead of placing more restrictions on it,” Lu said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts