Joel Wilcox wrote:
>At 09:15 PM 2/9/1999 -0500, Tomoko wrote:
>>
>>Hopefully, in the future this situation will change. In the long run,
companies
>>like Olympus having a special niche product line will benefit from the
>>globalization of their market. People will buy whatever the prices are
>>reasonable. I wonder how the warranty repairs will be paid for under those
>>circumstances.
>>
>I think we all owe you thanks for this latest inquiry among your many
services to the list.
No, I did it for my own interest and not as a service to the list.
>Do you think that it might help get the point across if many of us who are
>seriously interested in acquiring lenses and cameras were to make similar
>email queries? Obviously, most of us can't do this in Japanese, but a
>certain volume of email might make the point that there is a tenacious
>group of buyers out there ...
>I would rely on your sense of what is good international manners in this
>case, but if you think there is any point, and if people who want to
>inquire have a serious wish list of items, I can't see that it would not be
>potentially beneficial. If you agree, perhaps you wouldn't mind posting
>the mailto's.
I agree in principle that the more people make inquiries, they might think
seriously faster. However, their Web site is set up for the Japanese domestic
customers, and as such I don't think they are equipped to handle e-mails en
masse in English. Besides I haven't finished business with them, and it is not
a good idea to publish the personal e-mail address on the list even if I have
one. I simply don't want to offend the person who have inquired the real store
on my behalf. The last time I made a mistake of publicizing the possible
availability of the Olympus calendar. I don't want to repeat the same mistake.
For the moment, just leave the inquiries to those Japanese including myself
living abroad.
I also want to add that it turns out that the new OM-3Ti/4Ti were not in stock
at Sanpou, another Internet/real camera store. The store is located in Tokyo
and they may be more specialized in the used market, but I have subscribed to
their newsletter, so I should find out what they actually have in stock.
Their reply was quite quick, which made me think that they may not get as many
e-mails as Yodobashi does.
For one thing, Yodobashi does their business on their many storefronts. They
have several branches in Tokyo. They do not have as many as the chain stores in
the US or Jessops in the U.K. However Tokyo is a big market. They are not a
specialized camera store, either. IMO, they are well equipped to survive in the
digital takeover of the film cameras whenever it happens. In other words, they
are not mail-order houses like B&H. In Japanese photography magazines, you
don't find Yodobashi ads. They do advertise on T.V. according to my Japanese
friend here. Therefore, this Internet store is their first venture into
mail-order business.
On the other hand, there are a number of Japanese camera stores who specialize
in mail order as well as storefront business. However, (this is important from
the point of view of international sales), some like Sanpou would not accept
credit card payments. So how do the Japanese pay? They either deposit their
payments into the store's bank account or send cash. The Japanese Postal
Service has a special service called "cash registered delivery". You actually
put cash in an envelope and send by "cash registered mail".
It is not that simple to go from domestic mail order to international in Japan.
Tomoko Yamamoto
mailto:tomokoy@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.charm.net/~tomokoy/
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