Sales of pre-ordered dishes for Lunar New Year festivities are on the rise, with a growing number of families around the country opting to order in the main meal to celebrate the traditional holiday rather than prepare it themselves.
Local convenience stores and supermarkets launched promotional campaigns for pre-ordered dishes at the end of last month, ahead of the Lunar New Year, which starts on Jan. 23 this year.
The nation’s leading convenience store chain 7-Eleven, which has collaborated with five-star hotels and top restaurants to provide New Year meals for many years, said its sales of dishes for the holidays had been “steadily increasing.”
The chain expected the number of customers taking advantage of its New Year meals to be higher than the 500,000 households that bought specially prepared dishes last year.
Sean Yang, a senior public relations specialist at the FamilyMart convenience store chain, said its sales of pre-ordered holiday meals were up 50 percent from last year, which he attributed to the relatively early holiday this year and changing consumer habits.
“More and more people choose to buy meals [for the occasion] instead of cooking themselves,” he said, adding that some Lunar New Year dishes can take hours to prepare.
Supermarkets are also active in the market and offering on-site samples so that consumers can first taste dishes before deciding what to buy. Some are staying open around the clock to accommodate the surge in shopping expected ahead of the holiday.
Retail giant RT-Mart said that it has sold more than 7,000 sets of “self-select dish combos” over the past two weeks, a 20 percent increase on last year, while supermarket chain Carrefour has seen its sales of pre-ordered dishes double.
“We did not expect such high sales figures because of the global economic downturn, but it seems that traditional holidays still drive up sales,” Carrefour Taiwan public relations manager Dream Lin (林夢紹) said.
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
The Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP) has funded short-term internships in Taiwan for more than 4,500 young people from more than 40 countries since 2015, with the goal of attracting and retaining international talent, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Fifty-five colleges launched 514 projects this year, including in fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, medicine and biotechnology, green energy, and sustainability, it said. The program provides research and practical internships in Taiwan for two to six months, and offers cultural exchange and networking opportunities, the ministry said. For example, National Formosa University’s Embedded System and Autopilot Laboratory developed two solar-powered drones in
GLOBAL: Although Matsu has limited capacity for large numbers of domestic tourists, it would be a great high-end destination for international travelers, an official said Lienchiang County’s (Matsu) unique landscape and Cold War history give it great potential to be marketed as a destination for international travelers, Tourism Administration Director General Chen Yu-hsiu (陳玉秀) said at the weekend. Tourism officials traveled to the outlying island for the Matsu Biennial, an art festival that started on Friday to celebrate Matsu’s culture, history and landscape. Travelers to Matsu, which lies about 190km northwest of Taipei, must fly or take the state-run New Taima passenger ship. However, flights are often canceled during fog season from April to June. Chen spoke about her vision to promote Matsu as a tourist attraction in
Taipei resident Mu Chu-hua caught some glimpses of China’s mighty military parade on YouTube on Wednesday. As she watched hypersonic missiles roll down Beijing’s Changan Avenue and troops march in lockstep, she did not feel like they posed a threat to Taiwan. Mu, a 69-year-old retiree, said she saw the parade as simply a way for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to “say thank you to the troops.” “I thought it was quite normal,” she said. “It was very cool.” China’s military parade commemorating the end of World War II was being watched internationally for insights into Beijing’s military advances and its show
RSS