Major hypermarket chains will be extending their service hours to 24 hours to meet consumer needs prior to the Lunar New Year.
Carrefour (家樂福), the nation's biggest hypermarket chain, will offer the longest extension at 12 days.
"The 24-hour service aims to provide more freedom to our customers, many of whom are dual-income families. The service will not only enable customers to shop at their own convenience, but will also help the stores to spread out weekend crowds," Dream Lin (
Carrefour, which has 48 stores nationwide, is expecting a year-on-year 1 percent to 2 percent growth in sales for the Lunar New Year period, which runs from tomorrow until Feb. 5, Lin said.
RT-Mart International Ltd (大潤發) and Far Eastern Geant (愛買), the nation's second and third largest market players with 23 and 14 stores nationwide respectively, will provide their 24-hour services from Jan. 30 to Feb. 6.
"Customers shopping between 1am and 7am accounted for 15 percent to 20 percent of RT-Mart's sales during Lunar New Year last year. The 12am to 2am period saw the largest number of shoppers," Margaret Ho (何默真), assistant manager at RT-Mart's public relations department, said yesterday.
Far Eastern Geant said sales during the Lunar New Year period were significant, accounting for 20 percent of annual sales. The company said this year its focus would be on low-cost gift boxes, with prices ranging from NT$159 to NT$399.
"Medicinal herbs have become a less popular New Year gift option in the last two years, with sales dropping to only 8 percent of sales for the period. Low-cost gift boxes of candies and cookies are among customers's top choices, accounting for more that 50 percent of sales," Far Eastern Geant marketing director Fiona Wang (
As to the hypermarket's outlook for this year, Lillian Lee (李莉莉), public relations manager at Carrefour Taiwan, said the retailer's sales were expected to increase by about 20 percent, to more than NT$70 billion (US$2.16 billion) through the addition of six or seven stores.
Carrefour's market share will then account for half of the domestic retail industry.
RT-Mart and Far Eastern Geant, which both expect to see a 3 percent growth in sales this year, are to open one new store each this year.
Also See: New Year's Eve dinner: easy as pie
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS