The Least Useful Guide to Fukuoka

Within my shopping territory, there are at least three “cursed” stores to let, in which, as long as I can remember,  no business has succeeded. While their next-door shops are doing well and the location is not bad at all, any business, either retail or service, failed in very short period of time.

Site 1

This site is very conveniently located; just a few steps from the gate of an underground station that on average 21800 people /day use (as of fiscal 2012. Retrieved from http://subway.city.fukuoka.lg.jp/subway/management/transport.html ). But every business took this place has failed without exception.

As long as I can remember (maybe I miss some though), this site first hosted a branch of a popular chain-store bakery with a café space, then a chemist,  a charity shop, and the last tenant was a local specialty store mainly dealing with locally grown vegetables and other farming products. When it opened, I thought the site finally found the right tenant. A combination of locally grown vegetables and the location seemed the most promising in terms of attracting shoppers who cannot afford time to travel to “real” farmers’ market.  So it couldn’t fail in every respect. But the store closed down within a year or so, and the space has been left untouched ever since. 

Site 2

This lot has seen numerous tenants come and go. In the busiest part of a local shopping street, many would-be shopkeepers must have seen this location as their “promised land,” and moved in with high hopes for their success, only to give up the business in bitter tears. In fact, amongst flourishing shops surrounding it, only this space has been left derelict for ages after the last tenant, probably a Korean snack bar, after a custard pudding shop,  a Hong Kong-style drink bar, rolled cake specialist, left. Meanwhile, It’s next door neighbour, a Chinese bun shop, has been doing well ever since I have moved in Fukuoka (probably it has been in business in the same place since much before my moving in).

Site 3

I feel a lump in my throat when I think about this place as I once frequented to the creperie, the last tenant of this place. After many failed businesses, such as organic food store and soybean ice cream shop, the creperie seemed to break the jinx: no business can survive here. It offered a good service and food at very affordable prices, and the shopkeeper was friendly and cheefful.  But one day, I noticed something went wrong. There were some people chatting loudly without purchasing anything, but the shopkeeper did not say anything to them. Or rather, she actively joined the conversation without paying attention to other customers. I have seen this symptom at numerous shops, café, restaurant which would sooner or later go out of business.  As I worried, after a month or so, the creperie was closed. Its signboard had been removed.  One of my favourite snacking spots has gone forever.

I don’t like to believe anything supernatural or invisible (even though more and more things has become invisible because of my aging eyesight ), but these sites make me think that the deep chagrin and sorrow of the failed shopkeepers  bound to the land might have block  new tenants from succeeding in their business.