Costco Wholesale Taiwan Ltd yesterday said that it plans to offer discounts to members at the opening of its new store in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊) instead of free breakfast and gifts as it did in the past.
It is the first time Costco would not be offering free breakfast and gifts at the opening of a new outlet in the country.
The decision is intended to prevent a traffic jam in the vicinity of the new Sinjhuang store when it opens on Jan. 7, it said.
In April, the wholesale operator opened a store in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), its 12th outlet in Taiwan. Its offering of a free breakfast and gifts attracted a great number of members who lined up before the store opened, causing serious traffic congestion, which required police to impose traffic controls.
Chao Chien-hua (趙建華), an executive at Costco Taiwan, said that the Sinjhuang store would provide exclusive incentives to members who shop there on the opening day, including up to 50 percent off selected products, such as UK-made detergent, scallops from Hokkaido, Japan, and food supplements.
The Sinjhuang branch will be the 13th Costco outlet to open in Taiwan since the big-box wholesale hypermarket operator arrived in 1997.
The new store will have a floor area of about 13,200m2 and be the tallest Costco in Taiwan with five floors above ground and one underground.
Chao said the new store would be Costco’s first “green” building in the nation, as it was built using recyclable materials and is equipped with solar energy panels on the roof.
The new store’s LED lighting meets 95 percent of its total lighting needs, he added.
As of the end of last year, Costco had 2.6 million members in Taiwan, with membership renewal as high as 90 percent.
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