Davo 1 Posted April 10, 2004 Share Posted April 10, 2004 Got any of these in your neighbourhood? I have a Grandma and Grandpa bakery that no-one goes to. They sell white bread and a motly collection of rolls in quite a big virtually empty shop. There's also a bar in which I've only seen customers a few times in 2 years. The owner sits there watching TV or strumming his guitar. Hard to see how they can keep going at all. Link to post Share on other sites
Siren 0 Posted April 10, 2004 Share Posted April 10, 2004 The purpose of a company may be anything other than making a profit. Link to post Share on other sites
r45 4 Posted April 11, 2004 Share Posted April 11, 2004 I know what you're saying theres TONS of them up here where I live. They seem to have no customers, the only ones they do have are family/friends/neighbourhood giri types. Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderpants 0 Posted April 11, 2004 Share Posted April 11, 2004 Yeah, here in Oosuka too, we got the "ghost furniture store" among others. My wife and i talked about these kind of shops. There are a few of them in Tokunoshima, where she is from, She told me that people actually buy things in these shops from time to time out of pity for the owners ATB Thunderpants Link to post Share on other sites
Plucky 0 Posted April 11, 2004 Share Posted April 11, 2004 There are a ton of those in Misawa also. Along our 'white pole road' (does every city have these? - up north they are common) there a bunch of shops that look like they haven't sold anything for 20 years. The clothes, the manequins, the dust in the window.....but they are open every day. I've never seen a person in 75% of the stores on this road. I have always wondered how they could make a living. One in particular. There is a liquor store right outside one of the gates of the military base that is hardly ever open. I drive by this thing at least 3 times a day and have only seen it open a couple of times. I went in there once just to get a soda and the inside was nearly empty. There was hardly any product on the shelf. I just don't understand how places like this can survive Link to post Share on other sites
nagpants 1 Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 lots of the ones I know are family things that have been there ages. They stuggle to stay open but dont know what else to do. Some of them are really dirty things though. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted April 13, 2004 Share Posted April 13, 2004 Many times the business is part of their house, isn't it? And its not as if they have big stocking/staffing issues (family). The ones near where I am seem to get by on the neighbourhood/giri business they get. They are curious though, aren't they. Link to post Share on other sites
nagoid 4 Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 One of my best friends owns one of these shops. Its not his "main business", the wife basically takes care of it. He is actually a town official. He says they just keep it ticking over and keep it going coz its a family thing (his grandparents started it) and also his wife likes it because lots of people just go to chat. (!) Link to post Share on other sites
fukdane 2 Posted April 15, 2004 Share Posted April 15, 2004 Having said all of that, quite a few of these shops are now boarded up in my neighbourhood. It looks even more grim now than it did when they were open. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted April 16, 2004 Share Posted April 16, 2004 Theres one place near me and its a mystery whether it is actually a shop or not. It kind of looks like a run down old shop selling pottery, but then theres never anyone in there. But someone told me its a shop. Its definitely either a shop or not a shop, thats for sure. Link to post Share on other sites
ChocoPie 0 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 My fiances family own one of these "no purpose" businesses. It's like a small stationary store. They just about break even mostly with local people coming in and buying. Their running costs are very low - its part of their house - and been in the family for 50 years or so. And it keeps the wife and obasan busy (and happy) Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 These businesses, representative of Japan's poor allocation of labour resource and inability to capitalise on economies of scale and thus supporting greater prices for consumer goods will soon be replaced by the western concept of a supermarket where everything that can be bought at the local dusty obasan shop can be bought at the supermarket at the same time as buying the families nori. Hopefully that long and poorly worded sentence has covered up any floors in my ill-conceived argument. Supermarkets are great. In one place you can buy pet food, car cleaning goods, stationary, human food of all types, lottery ticket, do banking, tabacco, tooth paste, a toilet brush and lights for the Christmas tree. In Japan this would be done by going to several shops, none of them near each other and paying over value at each place due to the fact that mama needs to feed the family and if it means charging 2000 yen for a dried squid and a pad of paper then so be it. Screw the family! I want capitalist low cost and efficiency delivered via a 20 aisle supermarket with covered parking and an in house bakery. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 They do have these 'supermarket' things here you know, db.... our local one has a very nice bakery in there too. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 Lucky you man. I dont in my area of Tokyo and I apparantly live in one of the more established leafy uppercrust residential areas of town (only mention this as I would certainly have expected to have decent family orientated shopping facilities near by). Link to post Share on other sites
Goemon 0 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 umm...what's that place right near your station? Is that not "super" enough for you? Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 No man, with 3 aisles it is not super enough. All it sells in food. If I want other household goods I have to go to another shop... often another 2 shops. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 Your suburb is leafy ? Can't you get the local council to do something about it? Link to post Share on other sites
Goemon 0 Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 Not that place. The other place. Link to post Share on other sites
DumbStick 13 Posted April 18, 2004 Share Posted April 18, 2004 About 2km from me we have a 20 isle superstore, very nice shop. Very new, got tons of stuff in there, bakery included. Link to post Share on other sites
emptyworld 0 Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Those are few and far between where I am. Mostly little places with 3 isles. Link to post Share on other sites
brit-gob 9 Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 Things are looking up - in the last few years we've had some new good looking supermarkets crop up in our area. Not as good as the beasts back home, but definitely an improvement on the shitty little places that prevailed until now. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 I just moved to Kansai and in a two block radius there are: 3 film developing stores all side by side, 2 sushi stores on the opposite ends of the film shops, 3 laundrys, 5-6 liquor stores, and 4 combinis!! Im surprised nobody has picked on the eikaiwas as businesses with no purpose What about the Japanese govt? Does that count? Link to post Share on other sites
SKI 15 Posted April 21, 2004 Share Posted April 21, 2004 I'm sure there are many different reasons why these people stay open, it sure would be interesting to know more of those stories though. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted April 21, 2004 Share Posted April 21, 2004 what I like are the cigarette shops that are 4'x4'feet in size and has nothing more than a small open window onto the street through which it conducts business. Inside the 'premises' is a 90 year old man doing nothing besides smoking and watching people buy ciggs from the vending machine attached to his shop. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 21, 2004 Share Posted April 21, 2004 Theyre probably the "guys on the corner" your parents use to warn you about Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts