Convenience store chain Taiwan FamilyMart Co and non-governmental organization One-Forty on Tuesday introduced multilingual signs to direct people from four Southeast Asian countries to the services they most commonly use as part of a “migrant-friendly services” initiative.
The signs, written in Indonesian, Filipino, Vietnamese and Thai, have been put up at counters in more than 4,200 FamilyMart stores across Taiwan to help people with tasks such as sending remittances back home, and sending and receiving packages.
Those services, in addition to purchasing food, are the three most commonly used by migrant workers, a survey conducted by FamilyMart and One-Forty among workers from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in January found.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
One-Forty is dedicated to helping migrant workers adapt to life in Taiwan and teaching them how to start their own businesses when they return home.
Migrant workers visit convenience stores once every two days on average, but nearly 60 percent said they wished there were “tools” to help them solve communication problems, said the survey, which garnered 2,600 valid responses.
Some respondents said they wished there was clearer labeling on food products containing pork or lard.
As a result, FamilyMart said it has created an Indonesian-language sign with an illustration so that Muslim customers do not accidentally purchase such products.
The franchise expects to increase its number of stores with a Southeast Asian imported products area to 500 nationwide and the number of branches with Halal deli sections to about 1,000 from 600 by the end of this year, FamilyMart Corporate Communications Department manager Vita Wu (吳采樺) said.
FamilyMart branch supervisor Chen Jou-en (陳柔恩) said clerks would now be able to cater to the needs of migrants much more promptly thanks to the multilingual signs.
For example, it often takes a lot of time just for foreigners to tell clerks that they need to send a package or pick up transportation tickets, Chen said.
Thirty-five years after Taiwan began recruiting migrant workers, they now form an important part of the nation’s workforce, supporting local industries and providing care to households, Taiwan FamilyMart president Hsueh Tung-tu (薛東都) said.
Hsueh said that convenience stores have become a “third living space” for them, after their workplaces and homes, and he hopes FamilyMart will become Taiwan’s most migrant-friendly convenience store franchise.
Under the initiative, users of FamilyMart’s app can make donations to One-Forty, which would be used to make videos teaching migrant caregivers how to take care of people with dementia.
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