The Eslite bookstore chain is to turn its branch in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) into a 24-hour operations, after its 24-hour outlet on Taipei’s Dunhua S Road closes on May 31.
Mercy Wu (吳旻潔), chairwoman of Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), which owns the bookstore chain, department stores and restaurants, and also sells appliances and equipment for hotels, restaurants and kitchens, announced the decision at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The lease for the Dunhua branch is to expire on June 15, paving the way for an urban renewal project launched by the owner of the 35-year-old building, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), that would significantly augment its floor space and property value.
Photo: CNA
The Xinyi branch is to soft launch 24-hour operations on May 29, allowing the unique business model to stay alive, Wu said.
The Xinyi store, which has 1.8 times the book collections and 2.5 times the floor space of the Dunhua branch, would grow into a popular hangout venue for night owls, book fans and tourists alike given its convenient location, she said.
The building that houses the Xinyi bookstore also features a 24-hour supermarket, a bar and a cafe that help it stand out compared with the firm’s Nanxi bookstore on Nanjing W Road in Zhongshan District (中山), she said.
Earlier this month, Eslite invited the public to help choose the location for the 24-hour bookstore in an online poll, with the Xinyi store on Songgao Road gathering the most support, the company said.
The Dunhua outlet opened in 1989 and in 1995 became the first 24-hour bookstore operation in Asia.
Wu said that she was having difficulty saying goodbye to the venture, even though the bookstore business remains unprofitable.
The bookstore chain has been taking a hit amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as intensifying competition from online peers.
It has said that it would close its store in Taitung County at the end of this month, after closing its outlet in Tainan’s Anping District (安平) last month.
The company would still have 42 stores in Taiwan with the closures.
Eslite has stores in Taikoo, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong; Suzhou and Shenzhen in China; and an outlet in Tokyo, which opened in September last year.
China’s chip industry is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, after US sanctions on local champions — from Huawei Technologies Co (華為) to Hikvision Digital Technology Co (海康威視) — spurred appetite for homegrown components. Nineteen of the world’s 20 fastest-growing chip industry firms over the past four quarters, on average, hail from the world’s No. 2 economy, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. That compared with just eight firms at the same point last year. Revenue at China-based suppliers of design software, processors and gear vital to chipmaking is increasing at several times the pace of global leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
POSITIVE SIGNS: GlobalWafers has continued to sign long-term supply agreements, most of which exceed 2028, and aside from one factory, it is running at full capacity GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer maker, yesterday said that Samsung Electronics Co and most of its customers have not scaled back on orders, or delayed shipments, even though consumer spending has shifted away from smartphones and notebook computers due to mounting inflation pressures. Rising inflation has altered consumers’ spending habits, dampening sales of consumer electronics, the Hsinchu-based company said. However, customers all honored their supply agreements by adjusting their product mix and shifting to applications that are still reporting robust growth, it said. Aside from one 6-inch factory, GlobalWafers’ 15 factories around the world are running at 100 percent
HEAVY LOAD: CAL’s new baggage weight allowance is based on the type of airfare a passenger bought, while EVA’s would be available to all economy-class passengers China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) is to increase its free baggage allowance by 10kg for passengers flying to Europe, Australia or New Zealand, while lowering its fee for luggage exceeding the free weight limit, it said yesterday. The move is the airline’s latest effort to attract passengers, after local rival EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) late last month announced that from Thursday it would increase its free baggage weight allowance for all passengers. For economy-class passengers who fly to destinations other than the US and Canada, CAL currently has three weight limits for free baggage based on the airfare — 20kg for “discount”
Nearly a quarter of European companies in China are considering shifting their investments out of the country as COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns dim the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy, a survey showed. About 23 percent of the businesses that responded to the survey are thinking of moving their current or planned investments away from China, a report released yesterday by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China said. The survey was conducted at the end of April, when Shanghai was still in shut down and restrictions in places like Jilin Province disrupted business activity. The number of European firms reassessing