Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-02
By: CNA
Taipei has decided to change its regulations and forbid the door chimes at
The entrance of a convenience store in Taipei, Jan. 5. (File photo/Lao Yang-ming)
convenience stores from ringing at night, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said on Saturday.
Officials said the new rules could take effect as early as July.
Most convenience store chains said they would comply with the new regulation, but Family Mart, the second biggest convenience store chain in Taiwan, voiced concerns that quieting the chimes could affect their employees’ safety late at night.
Employees on the night shift are not always at the counter, Family Mart said, and silencing the chimes would make it hard for them to know when customers are entering the store, raising potential safety issues.
Most convenience stores set up chimes at the door and in the storage room to alert their employees that somebody has entered, especially useful at night when usually only one employee is on duty at each store.
Environmental official Yen Ling-chen said there are 1,478 convenience stores in the city — many of them in residential areas — and the city received 12 complaints about the noise made by the stores’ chimes at the night last year, local media reported on Sunday. [FULL STORY]
