Regional Development Through Ecological Business by Hirano Makoto;

Author:Hirano, Makoto; [Makoto Hirano]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1046983
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

6.5 The case of Tosa-Senri – a grocery with information and human networks

Tosa-Senri is a business selling vegetables and other food items produced in Kochi prefecture. Its employees number only two, with about ten temporary staff members. Its customers are from Senri New Town, a large residential area in north Osaka, 12 km from the center, built around 1960. The zone has department stores, shopping malls, libraries, primary schools, junior high schools, high schools, numerous offices, and so on. Its total area is about 15,000 m2 and the number of residents once reached 130,000. Although the shop itself was rather small, it served a large consumer zone, including Senri New Town, Osaka and the wider area of Kochi prefecture.

The Tosa-Senri business policy was to deal only in high-quality, specialist vegetables and food items, coming, as far as possible, from within the prefecture, because the mission from the start of the enterprise was to support local producers.

Usually, speciality stores of this kind do not make much money and have a poor financial status. However, Tosa-Senri has recorded outstandingly good financial returns, with the tiny staff team generating annual sales of over 100 million yen. The main reason for their success is their communication style. They learn as much as possible about the products – their unique characteristics and how to cook them – by visiting the farmers/producers, and then pass this on to their shop customers in the form of readily accessible information sheets. They also try to talk to their customers about the products in order to provide producers with useful feedback. Many customers find this style of business satisfactory. Tosa-Senri has established strong connections with numerous farmers in Kochi and also with many consumers in Osaka. That is, it has built close links between producers and consumers and this has led directly to unusually high sales figures. This linkage was based on shared standards, such as an appreciation of high-quality, safe foods, a moral/ethical desire to sell consumers only products of this sort, and a high value attached to things natural associated with what might be called the “slow life.”

Figure 6.4. Diagram of the Tosa-Senri.business and community network.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.