Restaurants and hoteliers are focusing on take-out services and selling food via new channels as consumers avoid crowds due to their fear of contracting SARS.
Din Tai Fong (鼎泰豐), a Chinese restaurant on Taipei's Yungkang Street area known for its xiao long bao (steamed pork dumplings), said it had started to sell frozen sticky rice dumplings in Cosco Taiwan since last Sunday.
"Ever since the SARS outbreak started to get worse in late April, we have seen sales decline by nearly 30 percent from [March]," said Kenwaul Hsu (
In the past, people had to take a number and line up at Din Tai Fong. Now, they don't have to make the usual one-hour wait for a table during either lunch or dinner time, Hsu said.
Din Tai Fong is also negotiating with Eastern Home Shopping Network (
Shin Yeh (
"We have seen tremendous sales growth in to-go orders," said Erica Chen (陳臆如), Shin Yeh's deputy marketing manager.
Last month the chain's outlet on the corner of Hsinyi Road and Kuangfu South Road generated NT$16,000 sales from take-out services, accounting for 2 percent of the outlet's total sales.
In addition, Shin Yeh is considering promoting its catering service for the first time.
"We seldom offered catering services before, but now we look at it as a cash cow," Chen added.
Hoteliers are also brainstorming for new business.
"Since the core business is sluggish, we are forced to be more creative for new business models," Evelyn Kung (龔臻瑜), a marketing director at the Howard Plaza Hotel (福華飯店) in Taipei.
Starting Monday, the hotelier set up small booths in front of its main door to sell dim sum during the lunch and dinner rushes.
"The reaction was very impressive," Kung said. "We sold some 200 dim sum meals in less than one hour that day."
Sales at the hotelier's restaurants have dropped 30 percent compared to the same period last year.
The average occupancy rate of hotels in Taipei last month was less than 20 percent, Chen said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS