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A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

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Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#51

Post by hcks »

janalsncm wrote: post #20
okdood64 wrote: post #5

It's incredible how much high quality restaurant food, groceries and snacks like these that Japan has had for a relatively low price as compared to other wealthy nations. It was quite noticeable for me the last 2 times I went to Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka, as a visitor from the US, that food costs were pretty much never an issue. I guess the dollar being strong has something to do with that.

I have thought about this almost every time I have visited other countries (usually in Asia). Many times there are a number of employees standing around “doing nothing”. In America that would be considered fat to be trimmed. But the number of times I have walked around a big box store in the US trying to find someone who works there makes me feel that the American model actually cheapens the experience and having red…

[flagged]

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#52

Post by kizunajp »

modernpink wrote: post #49
zelphirkalt wrote: post #31

> When asked about the future of the business, Hideyuki says he has no intention of doing business (in pursuit of profits) at all. He believes businesses exist to serve society and contribute back to people in the community. That they make profits are merely a side effect and that somewhere along the line the side effect became the main goal. If only more had his insight.

I, and many economists, would argue that the price signal, profit and "serving society" are more tightly interwound than many like Hideyuki are mislead to believe.

Is there anything I can read to understand this better?

Naively, I would think making a profit is not strictly necessary to serve society as long as the business makes as much money as it pays out?

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#53

Post by jaipilot747 »

hcks wrote: post #51
janalsncm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have thought about this almost every time I have visited other countries (usually in Asia). Many times there are a number of employees standing around “doing nothing”. In America that would be considered fat to be trimmed. But the number of times I have walked around a big box store in the US trying to find someone who works there makes me feel that the American model actually cheapens the experience and having red…

[flagged]

Don't think GP equated employees to lower class servants in their comment?

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#54

Post by liotier »

midoridensha wrote: post #26
techsupporter wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the US, the waiters are constantly interrupting and bugging the customers, hoping for a bigger tip. In Europe and Japan, this doesn't happen; you need to signal to your server that you need something... There are restaurants in Seattle that I've stopped visiting for anything beyond takeaway because my wife and I can't hold a conversation for more than a few minutes without being interrupted. It is very frustrati…

>On the other hand, when we have taken friends to the places we like that are far more laid back, at least one person has commented on how the service is "poor" or "inattentive." This is the problem. Most American diners actually want the server to act like their best friend and constantly interrupt them. People like you are a minority. >Foodservice in Europe, broadly, is one of those amazing but unexpected things I…

> Most American diners actually want the server to act like their best friend and constantly interrupt them

Seriously ? Don't Americans see how fake it is ? The French waiter does its job curtly and efficiently, neither him nor I pretend we are fond of each other and that is perfectly fine.

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#55

Post by modernpink »

kizunajp wrote: post #52
modernpink wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, and many economists, would argue that the price signal, profit and "serving society" are more tightly interwound than many like Hideyuki are mislead to believe.

Is there anything I can read to understand this better? Naively, I would think making a profit is not strictly necessary to serve society as long as the business makes as much money as it pays out?

My favourite explanation comes from Hayek [1]. Profit is a signal for other economic actors to move into the market to provide more goods and services. If something is profitable it means people (society) sees value in it so it is right that we would want more of it to be produced. If we say no to profit, it means we extinguish a mechanism by which society can allocate resources.

On top of this, it's impossible for resource allocation for most goods and services to be organised top-down. Knowledge about wants, desires, propensity to manufacture and supply is dispersed and distributed among billions of people (and always in flux).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoTVSsxiwGc

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#56

Post by soco »

ggm wrote: post #32

Retro lolly shops all over Australia mainly in tourism locations often selling nostalgia, lollies in jars alongside cheap euro/british imports.

In Europe too, for example the Italian ODStore chain - usually two entire floors of all kinds of sweets (plus some chips and nuts) both imports and Italian, again in tourist locations, generous opening hours and always populated when I was around.

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#57

Post by kaliqt »

wrp wrote: post #47
makeitdouble wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. A seldom discussed aspect of this is the ability to open a business in a residential area. Many of these small self-owned shop are the first floor of a house or building, and more often than not the owner lives upstairs, so it's less of an issue to keep it open with low frequentation as they're no paying extra rent or suffering hours of transit to get there. That also tremendously helps with the community aspect…

I lived in Tokyo and it was years ago, so I don't know if I'm describing the current situation. It was very common to see largish buildings in residential areas which would have some barely functioning retail shop on the ground floor. Some elderly relative of the building owner would maintain the shop, and would have practically nothing to do since the shop got almost no business. I heard the whole motivation for thi…

That's not a bad thing though. It allows for the opportunity to keep it going at worst, at best, maybe they can try new things or hold on until it does become profitable.

Either way, it works out to help keep the environment welcoming through culture conservation.

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#58

Post by jfrej »

creamyhorror wrote: post #8

It's always bittersweet when I visit Japan and come across old establishments or traditions that an ageing proprietor or volunteers are trying to keep going. You can see the love and spirit they have for it, but it often looks like something too disconnected from the interests of young people and the vicissitudes of the changing economy to survive for much longer. A kissaten (old-style cafe) owner in Nagasaki who sha…

Related to this I recommend the instagram account of Lee Chapman [1].

For example this series documenting old bars and their owners [2] or this one about old shops that don't seem to sell anything [3].

(Instagram links used to be publicly accessible but looks like that's no longer the case. You can also see Lee's photos on his blog [4].)

[1] https://www.instagram.com/tokyotimes_lee/ or https://twitter.com/tokyotimes

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/CiuP00iPy4W/

[3] https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp7Y1S4yYfC/

[4] https://www.tokyotimes.org/

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#59

Post by jollofricepeas »

Aethelwulf wrote: post #44
Tade0 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also assume that if something is called a "jazz bar", then there would be live jazz music there.

The previous poster was most likely referring to an establishment in the tradition of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_kissa

Thanks for this.

It’s interesting how many people wrongly assumed that a Japanese jazz bar (jazz kissa) with recorded music was the same as a Western smoky jazz bar with live music.

Assumption is such a weirdly human anti-pattern.

1. It’s surprising we as humans don’t walk right into a Lemmings like disaster and massacre ourselves.

2. I highly doubt that HN is more or less enlightened but I do wonder if HN is more or less likely to have dissenting, informative, fact checking voices compared to let’s say a boar hunting forum

Re: A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store

#60

Post by the-dude »

b112 wrote: post #37
zelphirkalt wrote: post #31

> When asked about the future of the business, Hideyuki says he has no intention of doing business (in pursuit of profits) at all. He believes businesses exist to serve society and contribute back to people in the community. That they make profits are merely a side effect and that somewhere along the line the side effect became the main goal. If only more had his insight.

[flagged]

He said more, not all.
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