Xiao Bei Department Store: Taiwan's Grocery King in the Late-Night Lights, from a Seafood Stall to a "Parent's Savior" Over Three Decades

Thirty-Second Overview: In 1994, a seafood shop at Tainan's Xiao Bei Night Market was struggling to stay afloat. Founder Huang Pu-wen decided to invest the remaining 1 million NTD to convert it into a hardware and grocery store. A chance encounter with a customer seeking help late at night led Xiao Bei to pioneer Taiwan's first 24-hour hardware retail model. Rather than pursuing the modern retail metric of "sales per square meter," the store insisted on keeping low-turnover niche items, ranging from professional plumbing parts to audio cassettes. Today, under second-generation management, Xiao Bei is undergoing the growing pains and rebirth of digital transformation, striving to preserve that "human-touch convenience" in the e-commerce era.

From Seafood Stir-fry to Hardware Department Store: A Glamorous Turnaround

In the 1990s, Tainan's Xiao Bei Night Market was a hub of food and crowds. Huang Pu-wen, who suffered from polio, and his family brothers ran a seafood stir-fry shop there. Although business was once booming, profits gradually declined as competition in the dining market intensified 1. In 1994, Huang faced the biggest crisis of his entrepreneurial life. He decided to close the seafood shop, invest the remaining 1 million NTD in capital, set up a simple shed on the same spot, and switch to selling affordable hardware and groceries. He kept the night market's name, naming it "Xiao Bei Department Store" 2.

The early days of the transition were not easy. Huang encountered theft, losing goods worth up to 500,000 NTD. To protect his hard work, he decided to sleep directly inside the store. One late night, a series of urgent knocks on the door woke him from his sleep. It turned out a customer urgently needed to buy daily necessities. This experience of "opening the door late at night" gave Huang a flash of inspiration: If convenience stores can operate 24 hours, why not hardware and grocery stores? 3 Huang's younger brother, Huang Yi-hung, later recalled this secret to success with a calm demeanor that hid a fierce determination:

"Because we always do what others don't want to do, sell what others don't want to sell, and keep talent that others can't retain!" 4

📝 Curator's Note: Xiao Bei's success did not come from precise big-data predictions, but from a founder's intuitive response to people's needs in adversity.

The "Parent's Savior" That Never Closes for 24 Hours

On Taiwan's social media platforms, Xiao Bei Department Store is most frequently referred to as the "Parent's Savior." Many parents have had similar experiences: late at night, a child suddenly remembers they need colored paper, a recorder, or a jump rope for art class the next day. With most shops already closed, the brightly lit Xiao Bei Department Store becomes the only hope 5. This "emergency relief" social function has allowed Xiao Bei to build a strong emotional connection in Taiwan's retail market 6.

Xiao Bei's display philosophy runs counter to the "sales per square meter" pursued by modern convenience stores. They insist on "selling what others won't sell." Even for low-turnover, niche items that might sell only a few times a year—such as audio cassettes, special specification toilet parts, fisherman's aprons, or even rice sieves used for wedding ceremonies—the store always keeps inventory 7. Store managers know these niche items by heart. When a customer asks for the Taiwanese Hokkien pronunciation of "ma-dah" (baseball bat), the staff can immediately point out exactly which floor and aisle it is located on 7.

Let Those Who Hear the Cannons Make Decisions

Unlike many chain systems that rely heavily on centralized management, Xiao Bei Department Store grants store managers significant authority. At Xiao Bei, the proportion of full-time employees exceeds 90 percent, and store managers are mostly senior employees, some of whom even hold shares in the stores 4. Huang Pu-wen had a unique standard for selecting talent during his lifetime: he would place an extra 1,000 NTD in the payroll envelope to test if the employee would voluntarily return it, thereby selecting honest and trustworthy cadres 3.

This "people-centric" management style is reflected in the differentiated operations of each store. For example, stores near industrial zones specifically stock up on strong-scented shampoo and detergent preferred by foreign laborers; stores near school districts place stationery and arts tools in the most prominent positions. Even the "water carrying service" (helping customers carry cases of water to their cars), which places a heavier burden on employees, is viewed as an unshakable corporate spirit 8.

The Young General's Digital Growing Pains and Vision

In 2017, founder Huang Pu-wen died suddenly of a myocardial infarction at the age of 54 9. The following year, Huang Jian-tang took over as general manager at the age of 28, launching the digitalization journey of this traditional hardware store. This was a challenge of "leveling up": Xiao Bei skipped physical membership cards and directly promoted a digital App membership system, with the number of members now exceeding 1.5 million 610.

However, the biggest challenge of succession was not the system, but communication with the older generation. Huang Jian-tang stated frankly:

"Uncle was right 90% of the time, which is why we are here today, but the times are different now." 8

Facing the challenge from Poya's establishment of the "Poya Family" membership, Huang Jian-tang invested 1 billion NTD in building a smart logistics center in Hukou, Hsinchu, while insisting on keeping those "unprofitable but people-serving" items. He refused to imitate competitors by canceling bagging services, believing that when others pursue efficiency at the expense of service, Xiao Bei's "doing a little more" becomes its strongest differentiated competitive advantage 8.

📝 Curator's Note: Contemporary retail talks about AI and automation, but Xiao Bei proves with its "most rustic" approach that as long as you can solve others' emergencies, you are irreplaceable.

References

Footnotes

1. Xiao Bei Department Store - Wikipedia ↩

2. About the Establishment of the Xiao Bei Charity Foundation ↩

3. Small Commodities Do Great Deeds: The Legendary Origin of Xiao Bei Department Store - Financial Digest Biweekly ↩ ↩2

4. "Only Picking Up Business Others Refuse to Do" — Founder of Xiao Bei Department Store Huang Pu-wen Passes Away - The News Lens Key Comment ↩ ↩2

5. Xiao Bei Department Store "Top 10 Best-Selling Products" Revealed! Japanese Tourists Sweep Up 2 Items - LINE TODAY ↩

6. From Hardware Store to "Taiwanese Don Quixote," What Is Xiao Bei's Confidence? - Manager Magazine ↩ ↩2

7. The Legend of Taiwan's Grocery King - Commercial Weekly ↩ ↩2

8. Xiao Bei's Young General Huang Jian-tang Carries Forward the Spirit of "Selling Everything" - Economic Daily ↩ ↩2 ↩3

9. Xiao Bei Founder Dies Suddenly at Age 54 - Yahoo奇mo News ↩

10. Xiao Bei Grows Against the Trend During the Pandemic, Expanding Physical Retail Lines Through Digitalization - Xu Times ↩