February 03, 2005
Simple Shopping in Tokyo
In the same way that there are "1 dollar" shops in the States that sell random bits of nothing for one dollar apiece, in Japan there are "100 yen" shops that sell all kinds of things for 100 yen (roughly a dollar). I figure that in Europe there might be "1 euro" shops as well, but I've never verified this. I like the concept very much as it is very easy to shop this way. When all prices are the same, you don't have to think too deeply about how much everything costs. In addition, 100 is a great number to multiply against as you may recall the wonder you experienced as a child when you could easily multiply 3 times 100, yet oddly you had a hard time multiplying the seemingly easier 3 times 9.
The power when everything can be recognized as the same in some representational frame is that elements within the sameness are more easily differentiable. For example a hotdog for $1 versus a ball of sushi for $1. The choice is clear (the hotdog). Change the deal to a hotdog for $1 and $2 for a ball of sushi. The choice becomes less clear (the sushi—because I now know it's fresh).
On a 100 yen-store shopping trip a few years back, I chose between a calculator (battery included) or an umbrella (collapsible case included). One purchase could help me add and subtract numbers; the other could protect me from the rain that was beginning to fall. I chose the calculator, which was given to me in a large plastic shopping bag. I got both calculation and rain protection for 100 yen that day.
Natasha Sandmeier in the UK tells me that she has sighted 1€ shops in Barcelona and Rotterdam, as well as 1£ shops in London. All of this supports my prediction that in the near future we will have 1-kilobyte shops on the Web.
Andrew White from Ontario points out regarding my comment on 1-kilobyte stores, "I'd like to refer you to allofmp3.com, the online music store. You purchase music here primarily by the download weight. Bigger albums cost more than smaller albums, lossless encoding costs more than compressed. Probably more akin to a bulk store than a dollar store, but I believe this is what you're getting at. I was personally drawn to the fact that you pay for your download, rather than some arbitrary cultural weight that usually under- or over-values the music I enjoy."
Amos Bannister in Australia comments, "Here in Australia we have $2 shops. Same concept—everything is the same price ($2) yet for some reason they still put price tags on all their stock??? Plus I have actually witnessed people asking shop assistants how much a particular item was...."
Thoughts On Simplicity By John Maeda