It’s the New Year and in issue 1.2 Transcript continues its series on Japan.We’ve all heard about the vending machine culture in the Japan and stories about how you are able to get worn girls underwear from a vending machine on the back streets of Ikebukuro. Porn and underwear notwithstanding, vending machines are an integral part of life in Japan and form not only a valuable but accessible source of food and beverage.
Standing on a street corner in Shinjuku on a Friday night as I waited for a taxi to hotel Claska, a row of 5 vending machines that flanked the wall – with their bright lights & j-pop anthems playing – caught my undivided attention. I was amazed at the sheer choice of drinks, cigarettes and food that was available. This is the concept of consumer choice taken right to its limits, where a machine would contain twenty different choices of canned coffee; where large cans of beer share the same machine as your favourite pack of Marlboros. No wonder Tokyo salary men congregate around these machines at the entrances of Shinjuku station, gulping down huge daijoki sized cans of Kirin before taking the express train to Yokohama.
Uniqlo, the world leader is fast, affordable & basic fashion has taken this concept to the next level with its UT store in Harajuku Tokyo. Designed by Kashiwa Sato of Samurai Design, this concept store has developed an innovative way of doing retail. Machines that dispense your cotton basics organised by cut, size and pantone colour line the walls on all four levels of the store. It’s basically a fully integrated shopping experience that eases the consumer’s decision making process, freeing up something that we all would like more of: time.
Wishing you a happy new year.
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