An Hour for Doughnuts

One of my co-workers told me a few days ago that there's a new kind of doughnut not that just went on sale not too far from the office and that he was going to stop by that night for dinner ("Doughnuts for dinner!? - "Why not?"). At that time I wasn't really informed in details what kind of a shop it was so I didn't know that it was a brand new shop, but anyway a couple of days later I decided to go have a look on the way back home.

I found the doughnut shop and it turned out to be the American Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and as I tried to find the entrance.... I realized that there was a loooooong line stretching out from the entrance. The line went in zig-zags in front of the shop and the people who couldn't fit in the open space in front of the shop formed a line on the other side of the shop.
I asked the person holding the "end of line" board and asked him if it was always like that and he told me that it's been worse in that past week ever since its grand opening on Dec.15th as the first KKD in Japan. I was also told that even though the shop's business hours are 7:00-23:00 they close earlier b/c of the lack of supplies.

I wanted a doughnut but I wasn't in the mood of getting in a line of an hour so I gave up that night. I still want to try these KKD doughnuts though. Guess I'll have to wait for another month if I want it w/out the trouble.

Well so, that's one example of another something from across the ocean becoming hot in Japan. Anything new here has a great chance of huge success, especially if its targeted towards young women. Most of the people in line were women in their 20s to 30s and their boyfriends (who apparantly wore tired looks on their faces) and they do not mind the cold or the wind or the hunger at 20:00 if they could get the doughnut in the news. A good deal of people are easily influenced by the phrase "the hottest (product/service) in (country name)!" even if it really isn't THAT hot... so... if any of you are seeking a business chance in Japan, there's one tip. Whatever you want to sell has to have good quality, but with a little exaggeration people would jump at it.

BTW I had a chance to go see the papabubble candy shop (see this entry) in Tokyo... and the tiny shop was full of people and barely had any candies left!


Today's update on Japan Mode: This Week's Events in Tokyo (and it's the last week of 2006)