The new year is approaching fast. Many are planning to go out on New Year’s Eve to watch fireworks or celebrate with friends. But merrymaking in the cold is hungry work, so convenience stores around Taiwan are getting ready to win the hearts and stomachs of famished revelers.
Convenience stores in areas popular with New Year’s Eve revelers are gearing up for the battle of the year. Their strategy rests on four hot pillars: hot dogs, hot drinks, hot buns, and hot microwaved food.
The New Year’s Eve battlefield is expected to be chilly, so throngs of cold, hungry, and possibly tipsy revelers are expected to make short work of hot food items like tea leaf eggs or Japanese oden. They might even wash it down with a late night coffee to keep their morale up.
To get their battle lines in order, store operators say they have prepared three times the usual amount of hot food to bolster depleted shelves. Some will even deploy forward command posts dispensing hot coffee and tarts.
Stores in Taipei’s Xinyi area, where the biggest New Year’s Eve party will happen, are in full battle readiness. Towers of crates in front of their doors are more than just battle trophies - they signify that spoils are to be had inside.
In the wee hours of the morning on January 1, this automatic door might not get a chance to close. Instead, it might just shout its battle cry of “ding dong” all night long.