Amid Food Safety Scandal, Kaohsiung Breeze Market's Green Restaurant Alliance Membership Doubles

Breeze Market had already launched a points-based membership system: once spending reaches 10,000, members can upgrade to VIP and get a 10 percent discount on market products. After the alliance program began last year, they could also enjoy meal deals or price discounts at other allied businesses. With food-safety scandals erupting weekly over the past two months, the market's average weekly membership applications soared from 50 or 60 to 100, and there are now more than 10,000 members, nearly 2,000 VIPs, with average annual revenue growth of 13 percent.

Lin Xian-hui said that any business with a friendly philosophy is a candidate for a market alliance. After the initial alliance with YaYa proved successful, they went on to ally with 9 businesses including the independent bookstore Sanyu Books, the backpacker hostel 38 Lodging, and Dili Indian Healthy Vegetarian Restaurant, hoping to build a green friendly living circle for greater Kaohsiung through food, clothing, housing, transportation, education and recreation.

Through these alliances, not only can consumer information about friendly shops be consolidated, but individual shops can also support one another. For example, when an allied cooking school holds an event, it first takes students to shop at the market; and when the market organizes an origin trip, participants stay at the allied backpacker hostel. Most of those joining origin trips are from other counties or are foreigners, and when they visit these locally distinctive "attractions" they are full of curiosity and deeply amazed.

At present the friendly living circle is still concentrated in the urban area of Kaohsiung. Lin Xian-hui hopes it can gradually expand in the future, so that every township has a friendly restaurant, while the market plays the role of promoting the philosophy and food education. "Did you know that Yanchao's guavas have an extra sourness compared with other areas? Because we have alkaline volcanic terrain here; Luzhu's tomatoes are especially sweet because it is near the sea and the soil is salty..." He talked on and on about Kaohsiung's characteristics, hoping that through the green friendly living circle, more people will come to know this beautiful land and the people who live earnestly on it.