Hundreds of people formed a long line along bustling Zhongxiao E Road in Taipei yesterday morning, waiting for the grand opening of Japanese clothes giant Uniqlo’s flagship store in Taiwan.
The Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer opened its sixth flagship store in the world in Taipei yesterday.
It is the first of six stores it is planning to launch within two months in Taipei. As of 10am, more than 700 diehard fans of the brand were ready to snap up the clothes once the store opened.
Photo: Pan Shao-tang, Taipei Times
Huang Yu-ting, 24, who happened to have a day off, arrived at about midnight for a place at the head of the line.
Waving her “No. 1” card with a smile, Huang said that her “main target” was a down jacket, adding that her budget for the day was about NT$5,000 to NT$6,000.
Uniqlo’s flagship store occupies the first three floors of the 12-story Ming Yao Department Store (明曜百貨), which also held a grand opening yesterday after seven months of renovation.
Uniqlo’s billionaire founder Tadashi Yanai and Uniqlo Taiwan Ltd chief executive Kousaka Takeshi attended the opening ceremony.
They said they were delighted at the opening and promised to provide top-level service as a way of thanking their customers.
Due to the large crowds at the grand opening of Taiwan’s first Uniqlo store, also in Taipei’s east district, in October last year, the company asked about 500 staff to be on duty yesterday.
When the first Taiwan Uniqlo store opened, 2,500 customers lined up and 7,000 people visited the shop on the first day.
The 3,630m2 flagship store at Ming Yao with 39 fitting rooms and 45 cashier counters is the biggest Uniqlo store in the country,.
Uniqlo casual wear is popular among local young consumers and at present the company has two outlets in Taiwan.
Earlier, Takeshi announced that Uniqlo was launching a plan next year to open 30 outlets each year in Taiwan. The goal is to eventually have 100 outlets around the country.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS