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.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
RSS