Kaoshiung for Gelato Business?

On the side:

I have this thinking about places that stay open without having sufficient business to support it.

  1. Well funded to ride out the first wave.
  2. Run by the owner of the store.
  3. Funded by the mafia as a storefront for money laundry. Store manager just gets a salary and the mafia does the ordering and accounting side, balancing incoming, outgoing and black money stream.

This is just some observations of my side.

But, don’t let it ruin your idea of opening a gelato business, but tread carefully.

Thanks All for your tremendous help and sound advice.

1 Like

Good luck :slight_smile:

Just an idea. I’ve been helping out new places get going here and there as personal projects. One paticular trick is offering something That can cater to a niche market without alienating normal people who may not care. For example, make your gelato vegan. You don’t have to push that it’s vegan, but vegans often gather and talk about vegan places that they can eat. You can gain favor with them and withou pushing it as vegan gelato. Just that it’s vegan friendly. Vegans have huge networks via social media that talk about this stuff. So without marketing it as vegan gelato, just make it vegan friendly. And trust me you’ll be the new buzz of town to a huge group of people that will spread your place from the word of mouth through multiple channels for you.

1 Like

Go and have a look at Cijin Beach. The On Tap boys have just opened a bar right on the beach and the area is being promoted quite heavily. Big crowds on the weekend and people love ice cream when they’re at the beach.

gelato might not be great for beaches. It’s suppose to be softer and at a lower temperature than ice cream. But i guess many places here are not really serving real gelato and people are non the wiser.

Second his idea. How about gelato for the lactose intolerant? In Japan, they have this delicious soy milk ice creams, green tea flavors, those are hard to find in Taiwan and Taiwanese go bananas for them when they go to Japan. Very few places offer that but with such a latrge vegan/vegetarian/budist/health concious/lactose intolerant crowd here, you could make a bundle. And soy is not as expensive as milk, you can offer innovative prioducts at competitive prices.

If you do set up this idea, Icon will be a loyal customer.

Or we can set up a the beer gelato cart. :rofl:

Abroad, Taiwanese go nuts for anything , but at home, meh.

Where I come from we have soy yogurt, soy cream, soy pudding, soy ice cream, you name it soy and we have it. In Taiwan it takes a hundred years to take off. I’ve played with the idea of importing it some 15 years ago, high import duties and shelf life kept me from it.

1 Like

Hey, don’t steal my idea! :rofl:

That’s why I say don’t market it as soy, vegan, whatever. Just say it’s vegan, vegetarian, or whatever friendly. Don’t make your place a vegan ice cream place, make it vegan friendly. There’s a huge difference. When I see vegan ice cream on the sign of the store I think it’s probably not tasty. But if you just say it inside the shop in some small way that it’s vegan friendly i wouldn’t think much of it.

The weird thing is that people eat plenty of tofu, dougan, stinky tofu. Flavored soy milk has been and has gone, came back and faded. A while ago I’ve seen soy yogurt somewhere, wonder how long it’ll last.

Oh the soy ice cream in Japan was scrumptious. So thick and heavenly.

1 Like

Good luck man, like any business, theres always risks of failure like others said. But don’t get discouraged. I’ve seen many places succeed and grow from just a small idea and a shop. You can PM me if you have anything you’d like to get some feedback on.

1 Like

Why is there a high birthrate in Zhubei?
I think it’s a good thing the country’s smartest people are making the most babies.

Based on my observations:
(1) Lots of people in their 20s and 30s.
(2) High average salaries compared to the rest of Taiwan, meaning people can afford raising kids, especially pay for quality education.
(3) Not much to do, so people have to “entertain” themselves at home.

1 Like

@athenian46 how did it turn out? Did you start your business?