Members-only US warehouse club Costco Wholesale Corp yesterday said it had cut short its three-day Black Friday sale after the sale’s first day due to strong demand for heavily discounted items.
Costco Wholesale Taiwan Ltd (台灣好市多) vice president Wang Yu-mei (王友玫) said the Black Friday campaign ended when its 13 stores closed at 9:30pm last night because all of the items discounted by the chain for the special sale were almost sold out.
It was the first time that Costco Taiwan had held a Black Friday sale, joining its outlets in the US market in the post-Thanksgiving shopping craze.
Costco’s 13 outlets in Taiwan yesterday opened one hour earlier at 9am for the sale, with many customers lining up to get the first shot at the discounts on offer.
In an outlet located in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), some consumers started lining up at about 3am to position themselves to take advantage of the in-store-only deals. As of 8:30am, about 100 people had lined up outside that outlet and the number kept growing.
When the store opened, Costco announced discounts for the Black Friday sale, including a “buy one get one free” offer on a certain TV model.
The special offers included a 60-inch Sharp TV for about NT$30,000 (US$1,000) that also came with a free 45-inch InFocus TV valued at about NT$12,500.
Costco also offered discounts on several other items, but many deals were limited to one per person so that as many consumers as possible could benefit.
Due to the strong demand, the payment system at a Costco outlet in Kaohsiung broke down for one hour before being fixed at about 11am, a Costco member said.
Costco said its 13 stores would still open at 9am today and tomorrow, but that no Black Friday items would be available.
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