President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克), a joint venture between President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商) and the Seattle-based coffee giant, is to launch operation of a new outlet today at the renowned Ye Jintu Mansion (葉金塗古宅) in Taipei’s Datong District (大同).
The new outlet increases the number of Starbucks stores in Taiwan to 321. That figure is set to reach 330 by the end of this year and 350 by the end of next year, President Starbucks president John Hsu (徐光宇) said yesterday.
Overall, President Starbucks aims to open a total of 20 outlets next year by launching more high-profile stores with unique designs and serving drip coffee, Hsu said, adding that the Ye Jintu Mansion outlet is the ninth “Starbucks Reserve Store” in the nation.
Although the investment in a reserve store is 80 percent to 100 percent higher than a general store, in which the company invests about NT$7 million to NT$8 million (US$231,420 to US$264,480), the high-profile stores have helped raise brand spirit and consumer awareness, Hsu said.
The company has also installed a drive-through window in two of its outlets, which has brought in nearly double the revenue from a normal store.
From January through last month, President Starbucks’ sales and net income showed double-digit growth from the same period last year, in line with company expectations.
President Starbucks has generated NT$103.7 million for PCSC in the first half of this year, according to PCSC’s stock exchange filing data.
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
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],”
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
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day