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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

#131

Post by laratied »

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 would really look at a chart of USD/Yen. My fav dining experiences were in Canada in 2000 when USD was so strong vs CAD everything on the menu was half off.

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

#132

Post by laratied »

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…

"I flipped a coin once in Japan and it landed heads. I can't understand why the coin always lands on heads in Japan.

It is those greedy Americans that have to have coins with head and tails".

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

#133

Post by Haga »

savanaly wrote: post #113
gcheong wrote: post #88

“ 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.” That change came about in 1970 with Milton Friedman’s ideas about the purpose of a corporation being solely to maximize shareholder value and we’ve all been paying the price ever since: https://www.forbe…

I believe the fairly relentless pursuit of profit is moral and necessary to continue raising the standards of living of all people. In that sense Milton Friedman was very right. However it is an additional moral imperative to ensure the profits that originate from "land" (where land is taken to mean all the resources of nature, not just actual land) are redistributed equally to all people. Have you read Henry George?

[dead]

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

#134

Post by hammyhavoc »

kizunajp wrote: post #50
lmm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh. Dagashi are... not great. (And frankly the same is true of jazz). You can get nicer stuff from any 7-eleven, consistently, and whether the staff member cares is (thankfully) not really relevant. Stores that sell something people actually want can and do thrive (by charging a premium if necessary), and that includes a lot of traditions that people value because they're traditional, but when it comes to something…

Tastes are obviously subjective, but for what it's worth it's not like 7-11 does not sell a subset of the same dagashi mentioned in the article. I did like the low-carb versions of things like chocolate cake they rolled out and in general they have a wonderful line of sweets: https://www-sej-co-jp.translate.goog/products/a/7premium/cat... Lawson and FamilyMart have great sweets too. Japanese convenience stores, to me…

Yes, I'd love to read it. Email me when I can read it, please. me@hammyhavoc.com

If you have an RSS feed, I would love to subscribe.

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

#135

Post by sedatk »

resolutebat wrote: post #9
sedatk wrote: post #6

Why is "Dagashi" in quotes here while it's not in the original article? The quotes imply faux-Dagashi or a tongue-in-cheek reference, or something like that.

It's a little old-fashioned now, but quotation marks can also be used when you're quoting another language, especially a word you don't expect readers to understand. Many tourists in Istanbul visit a "hamam", or Turkish bath. These days italics are more common, but the usage makes sense here because italics are unlikely to survive copy-pasting a title.

I see that, but its capital first letter already implies a proper noun, so no need for extra quotes, is there?

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

#136

Post by janalsncm »

laratied wrote: post #132
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…

"I flipped a coin once in Japan and it landed heads. I can't understand why the coin always lands on heads in Japan. It is those greedy Americans that have to have coins with head and tails".

Sure, but what am I to make of a coin that lands heads in China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore (the latter of which has a higher GDP/person than the US)?

Maybe we should stop trying to fool ourselves into thinking that tails is a necessary evil and understand that it’s just an evil.

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