Zhang Ai-lan, 65, a retired bank employee, prefers to pay her electricity bill at the convenience store in Taipei, skipping the government office farther away. Photo / Niha Masih, The Washington Post
Need to ship an international package, get clothes dry-cleaned or download a government tax certificate at 3am?
Want to buy a train or movie ticket, then grab a tray of noodles you can heat and eat? How about a cold draft beer while you’re at it?
In Taiwan, convenience stores have you covered.
What began as an American innovation has flourished across Asia.
In high-density cities with compact apartments, the humble convenience store has been reinvented as a public and civic lifeline.
Here in Taiwan, it’s an essential part of daily life.
“I’ve studied at Starbucks before, but it was noisier, with lots of people chatting,” said 17-year-old high school student Huang Jing-ya, her textbooks spread across a table at a large 7-Eleven outlet near National Taiwan University.
It has a cafe, bakery, photo booth, printer, ATM and a book zone, making it the perfect place for Huang to study until her mother finishes work nearby.
“And Starbucks is expensive. Here it’s quieter and much cheaper,” she said.
By the window, retired bank employee Zhang Ai-lan, 65, sipped coffee while checking her stock trades.
The 7-Eleven is where she pays her electricity bill, skipping the government office farther away. “It’s convenient,” she said. “And there’s no service charge.”
Alongside 7-Eleven, chains such as FamilyMart, Hi-Life and OK Mart dot nearly every street corner, forming a dense ecosystem of convenience rivalled by few other places.
Packed on to this island of 23 million are more than 14,000 such stores.
They exploded in number as Taiwan’s economy grew and it became known as an “island of overwork”, with some of the longest working hours in the world and little leisure time, said sociologist Chang Li-hsiang, author of a book about convenience stores in Taiwan.
“Against this backdrop, convenience stores became even more important, meeting people’s needs when they lacked time,” he said.
The result is that now for many Taiwanese, convenience stores feel like an extension of home.
Children head to the stores after school to do their homework before their parents finish work.
Young professionals living on their own rely on them for meals and errands. Retirees gather there for coffee and conversation.
When all else is closed during ferocious typhoons, the stores remain open.
“For people in Taiwan, it has [become] woven into their daily life throughout their life cycle,” said Shih-Fen Chen, the Kaiser Professor of International Business at Western Washington University, who has researched Taiwanese 7-Elevens.
To understand Taiwan’s obsession with convenience stores, the place to start is 7-Eleven, the chain that defined the model and continues to dominate the market.
Taiwan’s convenience store boom began in 1980, when a local company opened the island’s first 7-Eleven. By 2024, convenience store sales in Taiwan surpassed US$13 billion ($21.9b), with 7-Eleven commanding more than half the market.
The brand, which began in Texas in 1927 as a modest ice-selling storefront, got its name from its then-unusual operating hours of 7am to 11pm seven days a week.
Some outlets turned into 24-hour operations in the 1960s and the company, Southland Corp., expanded internationally to Mexico, Japan and Britain in the following decade.
Taiwan’s first 7-Eleven opened in Taipei under a Taiwanese operator, ushering in the island’s 24-hour convenience era. The initial years were rough and loss-ridden, partly because of high costs as the company bought properties to set up stores instead of renting them.
Things took a turn for the better in the 1990s, when the Taiwanese operator focused on localisation. It began to sell local fresh foods, despite apprehension from the American head office.
The American executives thought local delicacies like tea eggs – hard-boiled eggs cooked in tea, soy sauce and spices – would be too smelly, Chen said. “But the eggs quickly became one of 7-Eleven’s best-selling products,” he said.
Soon there were more than 1000 outlets dotting Taiwan, including offshore islands. The Taiwanese operator was listed on the stock exchange in 1997 and signed a perpetual franchise contract with the US 7-Eleven in 2000.
It was the introduction of IT services in 2006 that catapulted 7-Eleven to new heights here. With a single kiosk – known as iBon – errands that were once scattered across banks, post offices, and government counters could suddenly be done at a neighbourhood corner store.
Customers could use the kiosk to book travel, pay utility bills, settle parking tickets or buy movie tickets.
Printing and scanning services became available.
Customers could obtain Government documents, from land records to pension papers, or complete identity verification.
The kiosks could be used for calling taxis or searching for jobs.
Other chains have carved their own niches. FamilyMart, a Japanese chain with the second-highest market share in Taiwan, launched mobile convenience stores.
Meanwhile, OK Mart introduced cashless vending machines, turning hundreds of locations across the island into mini shops.
Another reason convenience stores have thrived in Taiwan – and also in South Korea and Japan – is because of urban density and smaller homes.
“In the US, homes tend to be much larger, and many people have large pantry areas to store food … [which allows] for purchase of bulk items and reduces the need to go to a store to pick up items for that day’s meal preparation,” said Jeff Lenard of the US-based National Association of Convenience Stores.
Even as the brand has faced challenges globally – 444 underperforming stores in North America are being closed, while a Canadian retail giant’s attempt to buy the Japanese parent company for US$46b fell through – the chain has grown stronger in Taiwan.
The company says more than 18 million people, or about 80% of Taiwan’s population, are enrolled in its loyalty and rewards programme.
Some Taiwanese 7-Elevens have leaned into pop culture to create themed stores that double as tourist attractions.
One outlet immerses visitors in the Hello Kitty world, with cotton-candy-pink walls and ceilings splashed with Sanrio characters.
At another, celebrating local cartoon character Bugcat Capoo, giant neon signs glow over shelves stacked with branded merchandise. A Dragon Ball-themed store draws anime fans for snacks and selfies.
For the health-conscious, 7-Eleven has stretched the idea of convenience even further with three outlets boasting gyms owned by 7-Eleven’s parent company.
Customers can exercise their way to vouchers for free soy milk or packs of cooked chicken breast at the store.
The stores have delighted many visitors, some of whom highlight the superiority of Taiwan’s 7-Elevens to those elsewhere.
YouTubers Hailey and Adam Richards drew more than 3.4 million views for their withering comparison of American and Taiwanese 7-Elevens.
“Growing up in the States, I saw 7-Eleven as a gas station pit stop. I only went there out of necessity, not because I enjoyed being there,” Hailey Richards said in an email.
“Taiwan 7-Eleven changed the way we think about convenience stores entirely. They really are on a whole different level,” she added.
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