Patak’s curry paste is the only thing I specifically get at Carrefour because I haven’t seen it anywhere else
Yeah they have a bunch of stuff that doesn’t seem to be easily available elsewhere.
With Uni-President (aka “fake food empire,” as @bdog aptly put it) now in charge, who knows what lies ahead.
Guy
I reckon the brand will be gone, transformed in the best scenario in a fancier version of that shipwreck of a supermarket. Worst scenario, complete disappear and no distinction.
Corporate decisions here are very random
Well we don’t know what deal they struck. The deal could include the rights to keep on selling under the Carrefour name. In that case it will be there until it rusts off. We don’t know even a skerrick of information about the deal because local business media didn’t even do the most superficial reporting on the matter. I wonder what drives this, are they scared they might offend someone by asking, or is Uni President just completely intransigent with providing any information to the public?
This is the issue, we have no clue.
For me it is just the curry, what else for you?
A fairly recent news article about the change of ownership indicated that Carrefour import products and supply chain will remain unchanged.
I’ve also asked foreign (French) staff at the outlet near me and didn’t get the impression anything meaningful to the consumer would be changing with their product lineup.
Bread, wine vinegar, tomate frito, sardine cans, pasta, jam, imported beer, olive cans, capers…
I buy all that stuff in Carrefour. All can be found in other places, but the price…
Got the article? Otherwise this information is no better than a LINE forward message.
Your choice if you don’t want to take my word for it.
"Uni-President is likely to offer more discounts amid fiercer price competition, although that could result in smaller margins for Carrefour Taiwan’s upstream suppliers, he said.
Loyal Carrefour customers should not worry about any radical change in the Carrefour brand, Wu said.
Citing US and Japanese studies, Wu said that most shoppers tend to choose a supermarket chain for the product brands they carry.
Therefore, Uni-President is unlikely to stop supplying the French brands commonly found at Carrefour, Wu said."
That’s what they always say to the media and to the workers. The actual plans though…
Even if the plan now really is “nothing changes”, they can change it in the future if someone comes with a plan to increase profit for directives and investors.
Thanks for posting, but my opinion on that article is it is just pundits speculating on what may happen.
I go to two wholesale importers that do off sales of most of these things cheaper than Carrefour
Bread I don’t eat very often as a rule, less in Asia. I do tend to get it from Carrefour when the mood strikes, but it isn’t very good
They have good breads and pastries, good frozen food section, decent selection of canned food and cereals. I will be very upset if they leave.
which ones? in Taipei? you have to buy in bulk? or they sell retail too?
The house brand goods (including jams etc) from Europe. Not the best around, to be sure, but reasonably priced and reasonably good.
Guy
The Wu guy quoted throughout the Taipei Times article is a marketing prof in Kaohsiung, who was apparently asked for his opinion about what he thinks will happen.
There’s no direct quotation from or mention of anyone who is actually involved in or professes familiarity with the terms of the agreement with Uni-President.
So while this is somewhat useful, it also underlines @bdog 's point about how the local business journalism here (aside from say CommonWealth) tends to suck.
EDIT: @bdog beat me to the punch!
Guy
This varies depending on the branch. Things are OK if you’re in Tienmu; based on my experience, they are not if you’re not.
Guy
According to this, they keep the right to use the Carrefour trademark, first paragraph:
https://www.thenewslens.com/article/171438
I think the article says only 10.x% of Carrefour sales are online. That’s mad, about 90% of my groceries are bought online. Who wants to walk around a store and then tote it home?
Care to share?
Website is crap (probably considered awesome in Taiwan), delivery takes forever last time I looked, and important to some I suppose, delivery is a waste of packaging, especially when there is one just down the road.