Jincai Grocery Store, located in Zhongliao, was established in 1976 and is the only remaining groceries store. However, across the street from it, less than 100 meters away, a convenience store with a brand new storefront, a wide variety of merchandise and a spacious parking lot has opened, causing the Jincai Grocery Store to face the same survival crisis as other grocery stores.
However, the difference is that Xiaoting, the third generation of Jincai Grocery Store, returned to her hometown four years ago to help out in the store. She is gradually changing the fate of Jincai Grocery Store by organizing various activities and changing the products sold in the store.
"I grew up in the countryside, and I felt it was a pity to see the groceries shops gradually disappearing due to social changes. So even though I had a good job outside, I was always concerned about the groceries shop run by my family, so I decided to come back and make some different changes for the shop," said Xiaoting.
Therefore, Xiaoting used the Jc shop 1976 as a base, and connected local youth with the industry to launch experience activities with themes of mountains, streams and local crafts.
As for the forest experience, Xiaoting will organize a longan-themed tour during the longan season, leading the public to taste fresh longans, use marbles to hit longan seeds in the Sanheyuan, visit the baking of handmade dried longans, and let the children collect longan wood ash as material for water quality experiments.
In the stream experience section, Xiaoting will lead the students to walk into the waterfall, touch the flowers, plants and trees, and take water samples for experiments to test the acidity and alkalinity of different water qualities and the color changes of the test paper.
For the craft experience part, Xiaoting cooperated with the local Xiulian dyeing and weaving workshop. After the teacher taught the binding and dyeing techniques, he led the students to complete a unique blue-dyed large square scarf.
"We attract tourists to Zhongliao through stories that cannot be heard outside and things that cannot be done outside," said Xiaoting.
In addition to changing the tourism environment of Zhongliao, Xiaoting also transformed the Jc shop 1976 into a multi-functional venue.
For example, she asked an illustrator to paint a map of Nantou and local specialties on the walls of the JJc shop 1976 to promote Nantou's local characteristics. She also set up a special counter for local agricultural products to help local small farmers sell their products, so that the Jc shop 1976 can have more connections with Nantou and re-establish the relationship between the store and the local area.
Although groceries have gradually disappeared due to the changing times, Xiaoting is slowly regaining the new value of groceries through local revitalization and transformation of old shops.
