Fortitude to Not Sell Something

Keihoku Super is the name of a small chain of supermarkets with eight stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area. When they first opened, almost anything that was for sale could be found on their shelves. The stores did very well at the time.

Today however, Keihoku Super carries almost none of the mass produced items that sell well at other stores. Mr. Ishido as the founding president of Keihoku says, “We decided that even if we know it is a good seller, if it's not good for your health then we will not sell it.” This policy has been well received by customers and Keihoku is doing even better than before.

One of the vendors that supplies Mr. Ishido's stores is a kamaboko fish paste manufacturing and sales company. Its president Matoishi was too mixed up in partying as a young man to be much interested in the business. But ever since the day that a customer requested a kamaboko fish paste without any additives in it, he became passionate about the business.

The resulting kamaboko product was costly to develop and had to be sold at a premium price, but boy, did it sell. A number of urban department stores came with head bowed to ask if they wouldn't consider opening a sales kiosk. But they were turned away.

The reasoning was if distribution were expanded the company would not be able to use only local fish for its product. If they used fish from non-local areas the product would lose freshness, and the integrity of local production would be compromised. Mr. Matoishi shares with Mr. Ishido the fortitude to not sell something they don't believe in.

The media hypes the age of nothing selling, or the age when only cheap goods sell. There are certainly many goods of this type in the home electronics field. But is it really true?

Even in home electronics, the higher priced goods that excel in safety, reliability, and energy consumption are what's selling. Bicycles and smaller cars that are easy on the environment are also selling at a reasonable pace.

In contrast to the discount supermarkets that are going under one by one, the convenience stores which sell at full price but are quick to respond to customer needs are actually increasing sales. Goods that sell even during a depression all share something with the customer, and that is a sense of value.


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