If you walk in Taipei City at midnight and ask a Taiwanese where to buy some food, the first answer may be night market and the second answer I bet it would be 7-Eleven.
Is 7-Eleven important for Taiwanese people? Let's see some statistics. There are 4,861 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan, while only behind 14,884 stores in Japan, 6,726 stores in the US and 5,840 stores in Thailand. However, you would be surprised that a 7-Eleven store is shared by 4,800 people in Taiwan and the store density is NO.1 in the world, comparing to 8,510 people/store in Japan , 46,967 people/store in the US and 11,253 people/store in Thailand.
So why is 7-Eleven so important for Taiwanese people? Because Taiwanese people care about "convenience" and 7-Eleven seem so mighty in daily life. In addition to the basic function - supplying drinks and food, 7-Eleven allows people to pay miscellaneous bills such as credit card bills, electricity bills or telecom bills, and provides an on-line system for customers to purchase concert or ball game tickets in store. Besides, some 7-Eleven stores have built-in coffee shops with free WiFi and some others even have mini bakeries with fresh bread.
People in Taiwan have not only rational association but also emotional connection with 7-Eleven. Its characters, Open-Jiang and Lock-Jiang, usually attract consumers' attention. Besides, 7-Eleven usually launch campaigns encouraging customers to collect points to win the licensed gifts from famous characters, such as Paddington Bears, Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma, etc. Here is one thing, which is difficult for foreigners to imagine, many residents feel safe if they live near a 7-Eleven store. Taiwanese usually work over-time, so when they go home late they would feel safe because there is a store open for 24 hours in the street where they live. They know they are not alone and they are not worried about finding something to eat at midnight. If you lived in NYC in 2012, you should still remember that how NYC was really in a mess after Sandy's attack. The disconnected Subway and closed stores made Manhattan's nightmare. In average, there are over 15 hurricanes equal to Sandy visiting Taiwan every summer (I am not kidding). 7-Eleven is where you believe it will still be open even under severe rainstorm and floods.
Although many advantages of 7-Eleven are addressed here, disadvantages should not be ignored. Taking the first position in convenience stores in Taiwan, the number of 7-Eleven stores is larger than the sum of the other brands. 7-Eleven becomes a very strong channel affecting people's life, so we can assume a leading brand easily becomes arrogant. Last year, a popular local journal - Business Weekly - reported that some food in 7-Eleven containing bacteria and reminded customers to be careful. After one week, people could not buy this journal in any 7-Eleven store since enraged 7-Eleven stopped to sell it. Though the second convenience store brand - Family Mart - wisely promoted Business Weekly with free coffee at the same time, its influence were far behind 7-Eleven.
Anyway, 7-Eleven has constructed a special culture in Taiwan. Next time when you visit Taiwan, try to visit a 7-Eleven store. I promise that it is very different from those in Japan or in the US.
I was surprised to see how many 7-elevens in Taiwan. It's interesting to see that you mentioned Thailand. I am from Thailand and 7-elevens are everywhere as well, sometimes they are even across each other (which I don't know why they would do that, it's like cannibalism) but anyways I couldn't image how many 7-elevens there are in Taiwan because apparently it's much more than what we have in Thailand. 7-eleven is definitely the most convenient convenient store to me, they saved me from starving several times on a really bad traffic days when I haven't had dinner. We also associate them with gas station as well. Good one!
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