First Issuance of Retailer Mark for Tobacco and Alcohol

The tobacco and alcohol retailers in the monopoly era as carrying on the “Urisabaki wholesaler system” during the Japanese ruled period had to have applied for and obtained a permit and to sell these products at publicly fixed prices. According to the Administration Regulations Governing the Retailing of Tobacco and Alcohol in Taiwan,” there were three kinds of retailers: tobacco and alcohol retailer, draft beer retailer, and tobacco retailer.

A business which had obtained the Certificate of Profit-seeking Enterprise or the Certificate of Business Registration, an institute operating material supply and distribution based on laws and regulations, or a cooperative or consumer cooperative founded on related laws or regulations might apply to become one of the three kinds of retailers to the monopoly bureau, while a business with a fixed stall license might only be allowed to become either a tobacco or draft beer retailer.

Once a business was qualified as a retailer, it would be granted with a retailer permit and a retailer mark (as in the picture above). Every retailer should put the retailer permit, retailer mark, and the price list on an obvious site of the business place.

At the same time, each retailer had to sell the products at the publicly fixed prices, and was neither allowed to change the product package nor to sell products with no monopoly certificates on these products.