The Department Store as Pioneer of Mass Consumption of Material Goods

My apologies for the long break between the last post and this one - I took time off to do the term paper so now I'm back. In the previous post, I mentioned that I would do a comparison of the other stores I've been keeping tabs on so I will do it here. But before looking at the other stores, I would like to consider the idea of the department store from Edo to Taisho era as illustrated by Edward Seidensticker in Low City, High City.


According to Seidensticker, Mitsui (now Mitsukoshi) survived the Edo period and beyond due to a few factors: 1) the company stuck to its practices of adhering a fixed price on their products, 2) it adapted from a specialty store to become a department store, characteristic of an initially Western tradition, 3) it promoted its goods by providing its customers with culture and entertainment in addition to merchandise (110-111). All these factors transformed the experience of mass consumption with things such as display cases for goods, shop girls, elevators, entertainment facilities within the vicinity of the shopping center, central heating, and perhaps most importantly, an aggressive advertising campaign which literally stood in Shimbashi Station. The result of an advertising culture promoting the department store was a creation of fashion and trends during the Taisho era (279), and thus the relationship between advertising and fashion in our world today can be said to be inseparable. 


The department store born in late Meiji paved the way for not just the department stores which exist in modern Tokyo, but that of any shop today, especially in its qualities of being adaptable to change and catering to the customers' needs beyond just supplying products directly. In a recycle shop like Mode Off, the last thing anybody might expect is an exceptionally orderly system of buying and selling that actually strongly encourages customers not to just buy but also to sell their goods. Promotion can be said to be aggressive as it sometimes entails the shop employees shouting out to customers on the street just outside the shop, which reminisces the shop girls of before. The customers' comfort in shopping is also catered for, with so-called trendy music, central heating/air-conditioning and minimal waiting time, which adds to the experience of a typical customer. Lastly, the emphasis on trends and fashion is extremely high, with a quick turnover of products that adheres accordingly to the current season and demand of the customers, thus revealing the sort of adaptability to change that their predecessors in the Edo period had.


If we were to compare Mode Off with high fashion shops such as Forever21, Uniqlo and the latter's subsidiary, g.u., we would realize that they are not all that dissimilar and that they can be related back to the concept of the department store in late Meiji. Let's start with the example of Forever21. A first look at the website targeting Japanese customers shows this:

The website is attractive to say the least, with its very colorful and friendly image that would appeal to the company's main target consumers: young women who are concerned about fashion and want the items to be pocket-friendly at the same. Now, this is not too different from Mode Off, Uniqlo or g.u., except that the first two also welcome slightly older ladies. Promotion in the F21 website tends to be high, with the slide show changing every 6 seconds and illustrating a theme or trend for its target consumers to latch on to so they might be tempted to buy their products. Another example of a trend shows this:

This is obviously taken from the original American website, meant for an American customer base on account of Independence Day. Yet, it is also used for the Japanese website, even though the initial meaning might be lost on a Japanese customer base. Nevertheless, the symbols of America printed on clothing may still seem attractive and exotic to the Japanese customers, who want to be trendy like their American counterparts. Advertising and fashion are thus carved into the site as inseparable elements. The experience of providing beyond just the merchandise is also taken care of as there are some English words mixed into the Japanese characters, which might seem cool to the customers. The models are also predominantly foreign since the pictures are taken from the original American website, so this might add to the whole experience of being exotic and might prompt customers to buy so they can somehow look like these models. Lastly, the price is obviously attractive and comparable to those of Mode Off - I will elaborate on this later.


Uniqlo's website seems to also have the same kind of appeal, except the site looks a bit more flashy than that of F21:

Red is often used to highlight things that are thought to be important to the target customer like brand (UT) , price, sale, recommended products (おすすめ商品), notification of new items (新作), and special prices for the week (限定価格) with an indication of when exactly they end (7/8まで). I wonder if this is associated with the Japanese (and Chinese) tradition of using red which is connotative with something big and auspicious, but Uniqlo's site does look more jarring than F21's, although the same principles of trying to make the site more appealing to consumers apply. The "slides" also change within a span of 4 seconds - this is an image I caught when the slides were in transition:

Unlike F21 which is big on themes and trends, Uniqlo tends to employ the use of brand names to help promote its products, such as those of collaborations with uniqlo like Cath Kidston (in the first image), manga/anime tie-ins like Gundam and One piece, and movie tie-ins such as Transformers, Pirates of the Carribean, to name a few, and the latest being Harry Potter (below):

Brand recognition in Uniqlo seems to be used to attract a younger Japanese crowd made up of both guys and girls, and also foreigners who are somewhat interested in Japanese popular culture. I have heard of tourists who buy something from Uniqlo as a souvenir for themselves or friends before they head home, and Uniqlo seems to be doing really well outside of Japan. Moreover tying up with brands popular with the Japanese crowd like Cath Kidston and Franche Lippee seems to be the way to go for Uniqlo to attract local customers, since I've heard that Uniqlo has not been so popular with them in the past when it first started out.


Unlike F21, the models of Uniqlo are predominantly Japanese with some non-Japanese (or least non-Japanese-looking). Also, there is a larger tendency to rely on celebrity power, both local and international celebrities, as a means of generating more customer identification with the products, which hopefully translates to more sales. Before I move on to talk about g.u., the subsidiary of Uniqlo, and pricing, I'll just like to mention that Mode Off seems to work in the same fashion of using red as indicator of what the store thinks is important to customers. For example, some of the things that are red in Mode Off are: its logo, "sale", "new" and "change of season" signs, color of sale cart, and the color of the price on the price tag. If you realize, these things are almost exactly the same as those labelled in red for Uniqlo. To look at this further, let's look at g.u., which works on the same basic principles:

Again, the "sale" notification stands out in a way that most people cannot ignore, and in red, together with the price and "free delivery above 5000yen" notification. However, despite these similarities, I would say g.u. tries in some way to imitate F21 in promoting its fashion to young female consumers. A closer look at the website provides these images:

In order to market its products to a customer base different from Uniqlo, g.u. has created a label called "be a girl" (first image), which seems to rival F21 in style and pricing. A closer look reveals two categories of "sweet"(second image) and "cool"(third image). Like F21, g.u. uses non-Japanese-looking models specially for this label (a check on other parts of the site shows mainly Japanese models), and the photo shoot looks vaguely familiar as well, although perhaps arguably milder than that in F21's look book (below):

However, the effort for a real photo shoot in g.u. is prominent here in a way that does not resemble the Uniqlo website. Lastly, g.u.'s prices are in fact more pocket-friendly than those of Uniqlo and actually comparable to those of F21, thus making g.u. more of a draw for young female consumers as opposed to Uniqlo. From the images, a dress from g.u. "be a girl" label typically costs about 2500yen, which is average or slightly more than a dress from F21, while a top from g.u. may cost about 1500yen or less depending on the design, which is similar to one from F21. This pricing is comparable to Mode Off, where a dress can cost about 2000yen or more and a top ranges from 500 to 1500yen depending on design. The items from Uniqlo actually cost more than those from all of the above three stores.


In terms of design variety, I would say that F21 has the most designs followed by Mode Off and then Uniqlo and g.u.. A check on F21's website showed some 400 designs in a search for tops alone! On hindsight, this might not accurately reflect the number of designs they have for sale but just the number of designs they have added on the website itself, which is crazy if you think of just how many items they have and how much of a logistical nightmare it is going to incur. 


Anyhow, what can be concluded in this comparison is that: 1) promotion is definitely aggressive for all the sites reviewed, 2) advertising is inextricably tied to fashion for all the sites reviewed, 3) prices are extremely competitive, 4) a large variety of designs and appealing portrayal of goods are crucial to attracting customers, and 5) large emphasis is placed on the ease of buying e.g. being user-friendly be it on the website or in the store. These were lessons learnt from the original concept of the department store developed since late Meiji period and not only have they not waned, they have actually been developed and improved to suit modern day Tokyo. 


Considering all the above factors, the next obvious question we should ask is that: what, then, differentiates Mode Off from the rest? It's hard to point to one exact aspect and say this is the reason but I think the part that supports the environment does play a large role in promoting the products in Mode Off. This is something to think about for the next post as I end off this very long post. I will also update with pictures of Greenhouse, the recycle shop near my place then, so stay tuned!