Taiwan Convenience Chains Expand Southeast Asian Goods as Migrant Numbers Double

Taiwan convenience operators FamilyMart and 7-Eleven are rewiring hundreds of store layouts to target more than 870,000 Southeast Asian migrant workers now living on the island. FamilyMart has installed dedicated import sections across 1,200 outlets, roughly 30 percent of its total network, after sales in the category jumped 70 percent last year.

Government labour data shows the island’s migrant workforce expanded from 390,000 in 2011 to over 870,000 this year. When including international students, spouses, and undocumented workers, the consumer cohort reaches an estimated 1.2 million people. A study by non-profit group One-Forty found these residents visit convenience stores every two days on average, relying on them for food, parcel pick-ups, and cross-border remittances.

Halal hot food and bilingual shelves

FamilyMart began testing dedicated shelves in residential and manufacturing districts in 2020. Those sections stock roughly 100 packaged items from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, supported by dual-language Chinese and English labelling alongside halal marks. The chain introduced pork-free hot food stations across 220 locations near transport hubs, hospitals, and industrial zones in 2024, and now distributes halal-certified ready-to-eat meals to 700 stores.

Rival operator 7-Eleven has rolled out Southeast Asian merchandise fixtures to 400 branches. Its inventory focuses on high-turnover staples such as Indonesian instant noodles and sambal, Philippine dried mangoes, Thai roasted peanuts, canned coconut water, and energy drinks placed near universities and factory zones.

Supermarkets tailor fresh produce

Supermarket chain PX Mart is adjusting its own assortments in response to heavy footfall around manufacturing clusters. At its branches near the Hukou Industrial Park in Hsinchu County, one quarter of migrant worker shoppers visit more than once a week. PX Mart has divided its foreign range into four core groups: packaged groceries, instant meals, household goods, and fresh produce tailored by nationality, adding specific herbs for Vietnamese cooks and personal care lines imported from Indonesia.

Convenience retailers across East Asia frequently tweak shelf space to protect store yields as domestic populations age and shrink. In Taiwan, where convenience store density is among the highest in the world, shifting floor space toward Southeast Asian staples allows operators to extract higher basket sizes from a daily captive audience without adding physical square footage.

Store planners are now watching whether 7-Eleven expands its 400 dedicated sections deeper into residential neighbourhoods, while FamilyMart continues rollouts of halal-certified hot food counters across remaining transit-hub locations.