But Japan adapts to Costco. Flying from Honolulu to Hilo today I sat next to a young woman from Japan who told me Costco was completely wrong for Japan, what with Japanese buying frequently and small amounts to match their lifestyles and space constraints. Costco was wrong in concept for Japan.
But Costco is doing well in Japan.
How so?
The Japanese housewife will buy the Costco meg-pack and part it out among friends. Like the "Cheese Conspiracies in the 1950s which housewives banded together to buy 220 pound wheels to cut up amount members, so Japanese housewives are banding together to buy bulk at Costco and then divide up the product and savings.
File this under... interesting.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
But Costco is doing well in Japan.
How so?
The Japanese housewife will buy the Costco meg-pack and part it out among friends. Like the "Cheese Conspiracies in the 1950s which housewives banded together to buy 220 pound wheels to cut up amount members, so Japanese housewives are banding together to buy bulk at Costco and then divide up the product and savings.
File this under... interesting.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
2 comments:
This is a informal and to some degree spontaneous grouping of Japanese housewives.
There should be a online platform out there with an agent as the mediator. The end consumer pays in advance the agent for the wanted goods through a online store (Groupon/eBay) and once the number of buyers reaches the suppliers minimum the agent places the order and then distributes it among the buyers. If demand isn't high enough the agent pays the money back to the end consumer.
/Jacob
I just checked, and naturally there is such a website. Paul Allen has tried but failed to compete against Amazon.
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