I usually go to this supermarket called 大買家 or Da Mai Jia (English name: Save and Safe) and its surprising how the supermarkets in this country are very western. I also like the fact that there are many different companies who have supermarkets dotted around Taichung. Although admittedly Carrefour, the massive French company dominates the supermarket scene, but there is definitely competition. While Tesco used to be in Taiwan, and traded all of its stores in Taiwan to Carrefour for all of Carrefour’s stores in Czech Republic, there are still many other independent and other companies operating supermarkets here. Examples range from Costco, the massive American branded store, and the Japanese Matsusei supermarket.
Here are a few pics I took inside Da Mai Jia:
As you can see supermarkets in Taiwan are very similar to that of those in western countries or namely the United Kingdom. It’s probably why Tesco’s couldn’t break into this market as there were already existing supermarkets doing similar things to what Tesco’s does in the UK and Europe. I.e. provide budget supermarkets for large areas.
