Tokyo broom store has not had a customer since 1972 (Update: HOAX)
UPDATE: Tokyo Times now says this was a joke.
According to Tokyo Times, this broom shop hasn't sold anything since 1972.
A store that, perhaps due to a niche that’s not exactly necessary nowadays, unfortunately hasn’t had the pleasure of a patron since 1972 — Saturday, September 2nd, to be precise. And even then the customer in question was after a hand brush that unfortunately they didn’t have.
Will someone in Tokyo reading this please go to the store and buy a broom? (And take photos of the transaction so we can post them here?)
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From the picture, the inventory is clearly newer than 36 years old. A money laundering operation, mayhap.
Can we look into a bail out program for the Japanese broom industry?
September 2, 1972 is the day that I came out. Coincidence?
that store was on the other side of the street last time.
I just bought a push broom (in the US) yesterday...AT WALMART!
#3 posted by Antinous , October 22, 2008 10:52 AM
"September 2, 1972 is the day that I came out."
"Of the closet" or "Of the womb"
Just curious.
I love what they've done to the place.
Closet.
This store isn't marketing to the Halloween witch crowd ((f Srh Pln's pstr hsn't lrdy rbkd thm)? Maybe they could even lure the first customers in with a sweep-stakes?Maybe they need to diversify their product inventory to leave their competition in the dust-pan. Either way, they're missing a major mop-portunity.
#3 posted by Antinous
Came out as in born, or came out as in "came out?" Either way, the owners of the store might be able to hold you legally responsible for lost income. (Just kidding of course.)
#4 Tak, obscure reference win...
Pretty ballsy, it wasn't popular back then. Had the TV show Soap aired by 1972? I believe it had prime time's first gay character.
Seems like they really missed the ball on a cross-promotion for Kiki's Delivery Service when it came out.
umm... shenanigans??
it's actually a front for a HATTORI HANZO type sowrd maker, just my thoughts.
Maybe it's a store from a parallel universe.
#8 posted by Antinous
Cool, and congrats. Not an easy thing to do, especially in 1972.
Antinous... I just thought of something. Did you by any chance come out of the BROOM CLOSET?
parallel universe moments: driving the familiar moonlight beach road, rounding the tight, treed bend and transported... sodium lit superhighway, two lanes suddenly six and utterly deserted - where the fuck am I?!
They used to supply the Zen temple behind it with brooms until it burned down in 1972. Now they just illustrate the Koan "What are the sales figures to some monks not sweeping?".
(Just kidding, as did the guy who wrote the original article)
Ditto to what Dbarak says @ 17. Truly courageous, Antinous!
Why would you buy a broom when you have a robot vacuum cleaner? Or a robot that can hold a vacuum cleaner? Or a robot dog that vacuums! Hey: Japan!
or
"These brooms don't play mp3s."
Maybe if this story is true, it's a front for mafia/triad style money laundering. I've known of several stores that are "play things" for crime boss wives that are really fronts for shifting dodgy money. But then generally those sell high fashion rather than brooms.......
Okay, I gotta ask: how could a store with no customers still be in existence 36 years later? Seriously, how do these people eat?
#24 posted by cinemajay
...how could a store with no customers still be in existence 36 years later?"
Monty Python skit.
My first thought was also that it was a front for some illegal activity, but if that were the case, wouldn't the store claim to have had customers in order to avoid scrutiny from the authorities?
There is a restaurant much like this in my hometown of Stratford, Ontario. I've seen at most one person in there at a time, and very very rarely. We all used to think it was a money laundering operation but apparently, the couple who own the place paid off the rent decades ago so they just keep it as a place for them and their friends to sit and talk.
Oh come on - they are HUGE on Ebay!
For folks saying the place is a front, here is another idea: The owners of the store own the building and live upstairs. The downstairs is a "store" but not really a business that needs income to survive.
Lots of places like this exist in NYC. In Brooklyn there are a few odd-ball old-man stores that are clearly like that. The guy lives upstairs. The store is his "living room".
I'd love to own a place like that and run a store as my living room.
This was actually a point of discussion in my *gasp* MBA class.
Tokyo has eschewed the mega-store in order to keep these mom and pop stores functioning, to the point of stupidity.
A store that hasn't sold anything since 1972 is being kept in business probably as a tax dodge (since the owners are probably on pensions). And honestly, the owners should have been able to sell off the property to something more usable for the general population.
Of course, it's still their right to operate and run if they want to. But most people don't spend 30+ years running an organization that doesn't do anything more than exist.
@24
Okay, I gotta ask: how could a store with no customers still be in existence 36 years later?
It's common in Japan for a storefront to be part of somebody's home (and living). One of my aunts had a small cornershop in front with the living quarters behind and above.
@#29 POSTED BY BWOHLGEMUTH
And unless you make some serious changes to your attitude, I think you'll be on your way to being a classic American capitalist who ignores the history of things and instead sees "great things" in plopping down megstores in the middle of nowhere.
Seriously, any society that clearly sees—and institutionalizes—the value of small businesses is good in my book.
Not everything should be done so you can get $500 bottles of $10 wine in a club.
Ssshhhhh--Black Market consumer electronics in the back room!
@28
I'd love to own a place like that and run a store as my living room.
Given the current climate, maybe you'll get to run your living room as a store. Actually owning the place, though, may be problematic.
PS: Just to clarify—since my wording is weird—but it's a uniquely American attitude that if one runs a business they should only do so to make high-profits.
How many people out there know somebody who makes stuff they sell at crafts fairs and flea markets and while they are not getting rich, they are clearly sustaining themselves and happy doing that.
Why not run a business where you can live the life you want instead of making more money to fill the holes in your life that aren't being met by being a cut-throat capitalist.
#32 POSTED BY GRIMC , OCTOBER 22, 2008 1:06 PM
Check my other comment. People are already doing that. And in my case, I've been employed full-time but still sell on a small-scale on eBay from my "living room".
Seeing all the crafts fairs and indie markets popping up, I'm not alone in having the urge to run my own small scale business. There's a clear desire across the country and even globally for people to run their own boutique businesses on their own.
I envy that broom shop.
If the haven't had a customer since 1972, maybe, just maybe .....
THEY SHOULD SWEEP THE PLACE OUT.
It's probably all dirty in there.
maybe you'll get to run your living room as a store
Or your bedroom.
@28 & @30:
I didn't know there were places like that around. The only place I've seen one was on Oahu. There was a little shop on the eastern coast which was basically just a room in this guy's house. He had some delicious food though.
@JACK
I meant, maybe you'll find yourself selling your furniture. :)
I agree with your thoughts on boutiques et al. But it's a terrible characteristic of our system where small businesses *have* to be wildly profitable, or they're just counting the days until they get taken out by a chain.
The building is amazing. How many of those are left in Tokyo.
Reminds me of:
William Gibson's blog had a link to story about a mysterious storefront grocery called the Lido that was always closed but still, somehow, in business.
What I find even more amazing than how they can survive without customers is how they can avoid customers in the first place.
I mean... 30 years and not one single customer? What do they do? Threaten them with swords as soon as they look like they might buy something? Open only from 3:00am to 3:01am? Sell a broom for the price of a space program?
Seriously, either this is a hoax or the owners are actively trying to prevent sales (or passively by not opening). At least a pityful neighbour would have bought something somewhen.
Am I the only one that is noticing how clean that sidewalk is?
What is the chance that they own the building and that their family supports the extraneous taxes/fees that go along with the building?
And/Or
The family probably owns a robotic maids-for-rent industry and is just keeping the tradition that lies in the property alive.
I Have to say that this story must be fiction.
I Just returned from Tokyo. EVERY HOUSE HAS A BROOM OUT THE FRONT. there is a huge demand for brooms as each resident is responsible for cleaning their section of the footpath & gutter. That’s why even in this photo you can see how clean it is.
There is many stores just like this one dedicated to one product
Gibson's Lido
http://tamarabrooks.typepad.com/my_two_cents/2008/07/the-lido-on-bro.html
I can think of some secondhand bookstores that seem to operate on the same principle - someone filled their house with books, needed more storage space, so they opened a bookstore to give them a place to sit in a big room surrounded by books, fuss with books, shelve books, catalog books, read books, smell old-book smell, etc.
The store is arranged as much as possible to avoid a sale - dim light, mysterious cataloging, the seller's favourite books are up a rickety looking staircase that usually has books stacked on the landing to discourage exploration.
Every now and then a situation arises where the sale of a book is inevitable. The operators of this broom store have clearly achieved what the bookstore owners haven't - a complete, zen-like saleslessness, allowing them to bask in the atmosphere of a a broom shop, without having to part with any one of their beautiful and precious handcrafted brooms.
I'll be in Tokyo next month.
Find me an address (and directions, Tokyo is confusing!) and I will buy a small broom for Mark.
tell them Crowley sent you.
Look at the rest of the blog, which is written the same tongue-in-cheek style - there's a tranny wearing plastic fruit described thus: "her (sic) meticulously maintained mien allows her personality to positively shine through", another shop is selling children with a "buy one, get a brother free" special, and a Boy's school themed "butler cafe" that offers the possibility of "a spot of boarding school buggery round the back of the bike sheds".
It's pretty obviously a joke!
The building is amazing. How many of those are left in Tokyo.
A: Quite a few. Some of them are in pretty ritzy areas too.
I don't really believe that the store hasn't had a single customer since 1972, but i'd be happy to go buy a broom just for the hell of it. and besides, i do need a broom. only problem is i have no idea where that store is.
I'm surprised no one has made a reference to Harry Potter, or raised the possibility that the store is somehow connected to the wizarding world.
I've been in Kappabashi Dori several times now, and I can confirm that *many* of the catering/cleaning stores in that street (its where the plastic sushi and curry-rice models are made, amongst other things) look like they sell one product a decade.
the side-streets off kappabashidori are full of one-room nohope, but clearly the hope remains eternal.
don't be fooled. some of these stores don't sell the apparent product: they are display sources for higher volume sales (the china stores for instance show one of a huge number of styles of soy sauce dipping plate, you order 100)
I can also believe this shop sells very few items. But none since '72 is hyperbolic, and sounds snopes-worthy.
maybe they will sell some brooms after they curb the witch shoplifter problem.
Takuan, that's a good idea - I'll try that at Wayne Shaw Books next time I'm in Saskatoon. Although I suspect that for all his fine qualities, Mr. Shaw is not Aziraphale.