President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which operates the 7-Eleven convenience store chain in Taiwan, is to set up a combination store with Domino’s Pizza in Xinyi District (信義) in Taipei to provide freshly baked pizza, the company said yesterday.
The store is to feature a kitchen that would allow people to observe the pizza-making process.
Targeting consumers in the busy and upmarket Xinyi District, the store would offer pizza mainly in single and double servings priced from NT$89 to NT$208 (US$2.90 to US$6.76) each, the company said.
The cross-industry alliance would make 7-Eleven the first convenience store chain in Taiwan to sell freshly made pizza, and is expected to increase in-store sales and consumption of other lunch and dinner products, as well as carbonated soft drinks, tea and other beverages, by 10 to 20 percent, the company said.
Taiwan FamilyMart Co Ltd (全家便利商店), which runs the nation’s No. 2 convenience store chain, has formed strategic alliances with five other industries to provide catering, fresh food and groceries, health food products, financial services and laundry services at selected combination stores.
Taiwan has more than 10,000 convenience stores, giving it the second-highest convenience-store density in the world behind South Korea, while Japan is close behind in third place.
Due to market saturation, major chains have been expanding their combo-store networks by forming alliances with other businesses.
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],”
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
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