Taipei's first French-style department store lasted seven years

On 20 January 1995, Mingde Printemps Department Store opened on Zhongxiao East Road in Taipei — Taipei's first French-system department store, set up by the local Dejie Group in a joint venture with France's Printemps. The opening was an event: industry players predicted it would push Taipei's East District shopping circle further east and send local rents multiplying.

The French format — self-operated merchandise, European merchandising, a Parisian name — was a bet that Taipei's shoppers wanted a European-style luxury emporium. The bet did not pay. Mingde Printemps ran for seven years and ended operations in 2002.

The building itself tells the rest of the story: the space became Chung Hsing Department Store's Xinyi branch, which withdrew after barely two years more, and later a wedding plaza with a hypermarket in the basement. The Dejie Group still owns the property. Two department store formats, one address, neither of them able to make the location work as luxury retail.