2 more weeks until megastore Yodobashi Camera takes over Akihabara. The grand opening will be on Friday September 16 at 11am. I’d like to go there and check it out if I can get off work. Personally, I like Yodobashi better than Bic but since I don’t go to Shinjuku all that much I don’t have a chance to visit the store. Yodobashi Akiba will be the biggest electronics store in Japan, bigger than the one in Osaka which is huge! I’ve been there. This one has a couple floors of restaurants and a 400 car underground parking (yes!!) Yodobashi Akiba is on the east side of the station, opposite where the main electronics district is located. Many have predicted that with Yodobashi moving into the area, most of the crowds will be heading in that direction and as a result lots of the smaller stores will lose business and go bankrupt. I guess in a year or so we’ll find out.
If you look at the left side of the photo above, you can see an older building wedged in there. Obviously, someone did not want to sell out and they had no choice but to design the store around it. This happens quite a lot in Tokyo.
wow…im going there in october…..my g/f bought her camera at the old one..im dying to see the new store…..pity these monstrosities swallow up the smaller businesses..seems the same in australia too..but i guess im a hypocrite cos i really wanna go there and by something i don’t need.. ho ho
Yodobashi is a cool store. In general, Akihabara is getting a long overdue facelift but people don’t really like change. I don’t think it will have the impact on other businesses. T-Zone was a huge megastore that opened up during the internet boom and has since gone bust. The little shops can hold their own.
wow the small building really glued to the big ones…
look like a parasitic building sticking to the big one..cooolll
I remember T-Zone, it opened up across the street from an American electronics megastore Fry’s Electronics. Needless to say it didn’t do too well and disappeared fairly quickly. If you want to compete, don’t build your store next to a giant amoeba of a store similar to yours. It’ll just gobble you up and spit the junk out!
David, I suppose you are refering to the T-Zone that opened up in the U.S. some time ago..by the way, I see that you lifted the photo from my site and posted on your site as well…hmm….