The 100-Yen-Store: Final Analysis.
Aug. 5th, 2008 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sechan19The 100-yen-store returned on Monday, and based on everything I saw this past week I think I can describe the basic pattern.
On the last Sunday of the month, the 100-yen-store closes early and a switch-over takes place. The succeeding Monday, the shop opens as a discount store, and it remains so for a full week. During that time, patrons have access to an assortment of goods (ranging in price from $0.40 on up). On the next Sunday, the discount store closes early and a new switch-over occurs that restores the shop to its original condition.
The merchandise racks are all on wheels, and I was surprised to find that rather than being loaded into a back room, the goods are loaded onto a truck that takes them away somewhere. Given this information, I`m inclined to suspect that the discount store may be a traveling market--perhaps spending week after week in a new location. After all, it doesn`t make sense to have the sale items sit in storage somewhere for three weeks of every month when it`s the simplest operation in the world to move them from place to place.
If I were here longer I`d be inclined to try and follow that truck the next time it came through to see what becomes of the racks of merchandise. But I leave Nakameguro in just over a week, and I will not see the cycle when next it takes place in my little corner of Tokyo. [sigh]
Nevertheless, what a fun little neighborhood drama this has been. Given that I love nothing so well as a pattern (and the identification of such), it has been a real delight ferreting out the whys and wherefores of the 100-yen-store in its ongoing saga.
On the last Sunday of the month, the 100-yen-store closes early and a switch-over takes place. The succeeding Monday, the shop opens as a discount store, and it remains so for a full week. During that time, patrons have access to an assortment of goods (ranging in price from $0.40 on up). On the next Sunday, the discount store closes early and a new switch-over occurs that restores the shop to its original condition.
The merchandise racks are all on wheels, and I was surprised to find that rather than being loaded into a back room, the goods are loaded onto a truck that takes them away somewhere. Given this information, I`m inclined to suspect that the discount store may be a traveling market--perhaps spending week after week in a new location. After all, it doesn`t make sense to have the sale items sit in storage somewhere for three weeks of every month when it`s the simplest operation in the world to move them from place to place.
If I were here longer I`d be inclined to try and follow that truck the next time it came through to see what becomes of the racks of merchandise. But I leave Nakameguro in just over a week, and I will not see the cycle when next it takes place in my little corner of Tokyo. [sigh]
Nevertheless, what a fun little neighborhood drama this has been. Given that I love nothing so well as a pattern (and the identification of such), it has been a real delight ferreting out the whys and wherefores of the 100-yen-store in its ongoing saga.
