Lin capped his own profit at 2% to keep PX Mart 20% cheaper than every rival.

Taiwan's military-civil-education welfare cooperative had run bare-bones discount stores since 1974, restricted to military personnel, civil servants, and educators who could buy goods at 20-30% below normal retail because the stores paid no sales tax and drew government support. By the 1990s the cooperative's management had repeatedly breached its operating contract, and in 1998 the government moved to privatize it. Construction magnate Lin Min-hsiung, a retail outsider, bought the chain's 66 stores — his own recollection of first seeing them was "how can it be this dark and smelly — who woul

Around him, Taiwan's grocery sector was moving the opposite direction: hypermarkets and supermarkets were upgrading toward brighter stores, wider premium selections, and higher margins to chase a growing middle class willing to pay for atmosphere. Lin's inherited stores had none of that, and no obvious path to it — no premium brand, no prestige location, a chain literally built for people who needed cheap.