Famitsu spoke to five businesses struggling in the wake of the COVID restrictions: the game center Mikado, the boutique game store BEEP, the import specialist Game Station, the toy & comic shop Garimpeiro and the classic indie cinema Shin Bungeiza famitsu.com/news/202004/16…🇯🇵
BEEP seems to be doing relatively okay: overseas customers, who typically account for 50% of in-store sales, have dropped drastically, but mail order, by-appointment, home delivery, etc haven't taken much of a hit, and they're not being forced to close so they'll reopen tomorrow
Game Station's doing it rough: not only did customers drop to near zero but 90% of their stock is imported from the US so they're at the mercy of whichever wholesalers are still open & still have stock to send, so mail orders are also heavily down & they're basically just waiting
Garimpeiro's in a similar situation: next to no in-store customers & wildly fluctuating stock due to closures in China, US, etc so they don't always have product to sell; there has to be someone at the store to do mail order so they're staying open in a limited capacity, for now
Shin Bungeiza has its own struggles: seniors make a large % of their customers, and the delays of new movies mean corporate chains are playing old movies that would typically be exclusive to Bungeiza, but Bungeiza's license fee is flat so they're on the hook even if nobody comes
Mikado's interview took place the night before their crowdfunding went live so there's a lot of talk about not knowing how much to ask for, how far into the future they should plan, etc
since Abe started hinting at closures on March 25, Takadanobaba dropped by 60%, Ikebukuro 30%
since Abe started hinting at closures on March 25, Takadanobaba dropped by 60%, Ikebukuro 30%
(I glossed over this because I figured people were aware but I guess not: Mikado launched a crowdfunding campaign a few days ago, it went extremely well )
