Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Eslite Bookstore

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Genre
  
Various

Website
  
Official website

Founded
  
1989

Founder
  
吳清友

Headquarters
  
Taipei, Taiwan

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Industry
  
Retailing and real estate

Number of locations
  
Taiwan 48 Hong Kong 3 Mainland China 3

Area served
  
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China

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Eslite Bookstore (Chinese: 誠品書店; pinyin: Chéngpǐn Shūdiàn) is one of the largest retail bookstore chains in Taiwan. It also provides one of the largest English language publications and translation materials in Taiwan. Its headquarters are in Xinyi District, Taipei.

Contents

Eslite bookstore in chungyo dept store taichung taiwan 3 of 3


Brief history

Eslite was established in 1989. The first shop was located in Dunhua South Road, Daan District, Taipei, with a focus and emphasis on art and humanities-related books. Since then, the company has expanded and set up more shops and increased its range of titles on offer. Eslite Bookstore was the first to set up a 24-hour bookstore in Taiwan at its Dunhua store, attracting night-time readers.

Eslite also expanded into retail, and opened up Eslite Mall.

Chronology

  • 1974: established Chen-Jian Corp, importing whole set kitchenware.
  • 1989: established Eslite Corp, first Eslite bookstore built at Taipei Dunhua South Road.
  • 1996: established Eslite Retail Group.
  • 2000: established Eslite Transportation Group, expanded to food and drinks, appliances, and online sales, established Eslite Global Network Corp.
  • 2001: established Eslite Logistics Corp at Nankan, Taoyuan.
  • 2002: Eslite Retail group and Transportation group combined into Life group, introduced Eslite's operation motto as humanity, art, creativity, and life.
  • At midnight on January 1, 2006, Eslite's new flagship bookstore, located in Taipei's Xinyi District, opened for business. With about 8,000 m² of floor space, it became the largest bookstore in Taiwan.

    • Branches

    Eslite has a total of 48 branches, 1 children's bookstore, and 4 music stores in Taiwan. Most of its target market are in urban areas, such as Taipei, Keelung, Yonghe, Banqiao, Sanchong, Yilan, Zhongli, Hsinchu, Fengyuan, downtown Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung.

    The first Eslite Bookstore outside Taiwan opened in Hysan Place in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong in 2012. It sold 706,000 books in 2014. The company opened a second Hong Kong location at Star House, Tsim Sha Tsui in 2015.

    On 29 November, Eslite Bookstore opened up its first branch in China in the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.

  • Eslite Musicstore
  • Eslite Coffeehouse
  • Eslite Winery
  • Eslite Teahouse

    • Self-censorship controversy

    In July 2014, Eslite Hong Kong pulled Tibet-related books off its shelves out of political concerns. Taiwanese media reported that Eslite Taiwan issued an in-company document prohibiting its workers to make comments about the company on social media without approval.

    References

    Eslite Bookstore Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA