Sundown for Sunrise

Not that I really ever did a lot of shopping in that place.
But the Sunrise Department Store on Fuhsing North Road in Taipei is no more after 22 years of service. It's one of Taiwan's traditional department stores, one of the big names when there were not really any modern stores of international stature in the capital. Remember the Rebar Department Store and the old Far Eastern, both of them near Hsimenting? The latter was completely refurbished.
Sunrise also tried that road by going all the way upmarket with brandname boutiques. I never went before, because I thought there was nothing worth buying, and I never went later because their new products were not affordable and similar to what you find at the new malls, Sogos and Mitsukoshis all over town.
I can't help but thinking that the Breeze Center slightly down the road from the Sunrise had something to do with its demise. Wider, airy, with names from the top of the line, and slightly closer to the new and the old Sogo.
Anyway, the word on the grapevine says that this weekend will see the last rush on the Sunrise before the thing closes. With a cloud still hanging over the future of Idee and another breakin at Louis Vuitton's Taichung store, the week looks bleak for the Taiwan shopping scene.
Good news: Fendi opened its new outlet at Taipei 101. Some close down, some open up.