I’ve searched the archives, and could not find about this question.
It’s been bothering me for some time.
What is the history of the two Sogo department stores sitting nearby to each other? Same owner? I do realize the green one is the older of the two, but are there other differences such as one is more upscale than the other? Why is the green one referred to as “BR4”?
and green…
…the original Sogo was a Taipei landmark on opening and along with the Wellcome supermarket down the road defined the “new” East area of Taipei (which was actually called “Dinghao” after the Wellcome).
The old store was increasingly crowded with not enough infrastructure to cope with the crowds. The smaller Dunhua store couldn’t substitute as it was too far (for Taipei lasses) and was mainly built as an outlet for higher end fashion, etc., and they realised that they needed to build a duplicate of the main Sogo as close as possible, because Sogo had such a reputation as being located at Zhongxiao Fuxing.
May I add that the Wellome supermarket next to the Sogo was the first one in Taiwan;
The Sogo on Tun Hua / Ren AI had an IKEA in the basement until - I guess 1998 or so - within walking distance of the still existing IKEA on Nan Jing / Tun Hua
When I asked my Taiwanese friend why there are two same stores opposite each other, they told me that competitor of Sogo wanted to built in front of them, so they’ve paid even higher price for the spot and built the second (third?) Sogo to make sure there’s not competition.
Not sure if that story is true… just what I’ve heard.
back when Sogo was first opened, the amount of people standing outside its doors just to watch the clock show everyday probably can fill a MLB stadium…
[quote=“Chris”]
I always thought Dinghao was the name of a traditional market that was in the area before the old white Sogo was built.[/quote]
You might be right…I just presumed since it was the first Dinghao supermarket the name followed.