This is a true merchant! Introducing a USP that keeps them in business for life

Thank you as always! This is Kaiun-san.
Looking forward to another great day! 😊

A story from yesterday.

I realized I hadn't had okonomiyaki lately, so I asked my wife, "Shall we go get some?" and she said yes.

Then we started talking about which okonomiyaki place to go to, and after some deliberation, we decided on one in the neighborhood.

Even though it's nearby, I had actually never been there, and it was a place I had been curious about for a long time.

We visited the shop right away, and as we passed through the faded noren curtain, a friendly voice called out, "Welcome!" It seemed like two middle-aged ladies were running the place.

We decided on two pork okonomiyaki, one of them a large size, and I ordered a beer.

Now, while the okonomiyaki was cooking, the lady started chatting with us about various things. She was very friendly.

While we were waiting for it to finish cooking, she brought us a small bowl of side dishes and some pickled Chinese cabbage. Since these weren't on the menu, it felt like a little bonus. You don't often get service like this at an okonomiyaki place, so I was quite happy.

Before long, it was cooked, so we started eating. The Kansai-style okonomiyaki had sweet cabbage and was truly delicious.

And this was after we had finished eating everything.

The lady at the shop asked us, "It's just instant, but would you like some coffee?"

Since I was drinking beer, my wife had the coffee. They even brought out some rice crackers to go with the coffee.

What do you think about this? Did you feel it was excessive service?
As for the state of the shop at that time, it was bustling with customers waiting for takeout okonomiyaki and customers eating inside.

There were even customers who would just peek their heads in at the entrance to say, "How are you doing, ma'am?" before leaving, so it seemed like a fairly popular shop.

In these tough times for the restaurant industry.

I felt that this way of running a shop was essentially the foundation of business. In this day and age, with so many chain stores, you rarely find a place with such frank service anywhere you go.

That said, if you were to ask if this is excessive service, it's not really. The coffee is just instant. But the fact that they offer it is what makes customers feel satisfied in their hearts. It makes them want to come back again.

And it makes you want to tell others about this shop you know. The result is a virtuous cycle where word-of-mouth spreads.

There is an atmosphere in a shop that you can't convey just by looking at gourmet sites like Tabelog, so this is a typical shop that you can't understand unless you come here.

In the first place, it's said that okonomiyaki shops have a slower customer turnover compared to places like curry shops. That's true, isn't it? Because it takes time to cook, the serving time is different from a curry rice shop where they just take pre-made curry sauce, heat it in a water bath, and pour it over rice.

Despite being in such a business model, they are undoubtedly thriving even in an environment where they don't distribute flyers, run ads, air commercials, or have any way to attract customers online.

This is truly the traditional Japanese way of doing business. Today, I feel like I was taught what 'business' is all over again. And it was right in my neighborhood. It's true what they say: the darkest place is under the lighthouse.

An old, faded black-and-white photo of the shop from the Showa era hangs in a frame on the wall. It retains the traces of those days. The reason they have been able to continue this unchanging business for so long is precisely because this shop has a unique USP (strength).

If they continue to do business with such consideration for their customers, this shop will surely continue to thrive in the future. They will never go hungry for the rest of their lives.

Yesterday, I felt like I caught a glimpse of the basics of Japanese commerce.
Narihiko Kaiun

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