How a store should be! How to start a furniture shop BULLPEN by Daisuke Matsushima .

MatsushimaI started "Paddler's Coffee" in Nishihara four years ago. Before that, I worked for a year as a coffee stand serving hand-drip coffee at a restaurant called "LIFE son" in Sangubashi . . Then I recruited a group of friends and started "Paddler's Coffee. From the beginning, I started with zero experience in brewing coffee or as a coffee shop owner. As for why I started as a furniture maker, I had always liked furniture and plants, like the ones in the bullpen, and I saw coffee as a part of a pleasant space, like furniture and music, rather than something special in and of itself.

Matsushima. Yes, that's right. The reason I started "Paddler's Coffee" was because I wanted to create a space where anyone can gather and enjoy coffee. As for the coffee, Kato, the barista who started Paddler's Coffee with me, has more knowledge and experience in making good coffee than anyone else, so I left it to him. . I was playing in clubs and other areas different from food and beverage, and I also liked making things, so I visited various stores and other places. As for my job, I have been making connections with the creators.

MatsushimaWhen I built "Paddler's Coffee" in Nishihara four years ago, the carpenters, plumbers, and electricians were all senior members from my skating days. So I felt like I was building a team, and I don't think of it as something I did with my own hands. I myself am not the type of person who is good at what he does, and now and in the past, I prefer to work together with talented people to create a team.

Matsushima. what I do here is no different. Even though I have a coffee shop, I don't brew coffee as much now. At first I thought that was uncool, and although it was not "shadow training," I even practiced behind the scenes (laughs), but in the end, I decided that when it came to coffee, I would rather have Kato brew it for me, so I stopped brewing coffee in the middle of the day.

That is nothing unusual in my mind. I think it is the same as in the world of magazines and the web, where an editor does the editing, a photographer takes the photos, and a writer writes the manuscript. So at "Paddler's Coffee," it is my role to plan events by asking artists and creators whom I have met and thought would be good. . I do this because it is something I can do, because I want to introduce the work of the people I meet and their work, and above all, because it is something I love to do.

MatsushimaI have been a coffee shop owner for 6 years now, but I spent my high school and college years in Portland, USA for 7 years. Portland was a very small town, where friends of friends might have known each other from somewhere before. Among the people I met there were potters, woodworkers, and artists, and they were all connected to each other.

. After returning from Portland, I worked at a company, traveled abroad, and experienced many other things. After returning to Tokyo and starting my own coffee shop, I repeatedly had pop-ups and sold their works that I had met around the world in my store. Then, by chance, the store in my current location was being reconstructed into a building, and the first floor was vacant, so I was asked by someone in the shopping district if I could do something with the property.

MatsushimaPaddler's Coffee is located in Nishihara, and as a matter of fact, I am on the board of directors of the Nishihara shopping district, so I had been interested in this property for some time. So, at first, I did not want to do something here myself, but rather I wanted to have talented people do something here, so I started by asking my friends who were interested in opening a store.

. One of them was a friend of mine who now runs a gallery next door. The "commune" gallery next to "Bullpen" was originally located in Daitabashi. The total area of the two spaces together is 100 square meters, and the original plan was to have a sweets store in the current "Bullpen" space, but the location itself was restricted and we could no longer have a restaurant. . However, due to the limitations of the location itself, we were no longer able to have food and beverages. Right around that time, I had a chance to talk with Shoji-kun (current "Bullpen" staff member), who was also a customer of "Paddler's Coffee" and worked at the furniture shop, and we got excited about talking about the property and doing a furniture shop together, and we actually started working on "Bullpen.

Matsushima. around March of this year.

MatsushimaThat's the way it went, roughly speaking, but I had always wanted to open a store like this. Paddler's Coffee has an event space attached to it, and we regularly held pop-up events, so I was always on the lookout for interesting people. The items in the new store, "Bullpen," include items from people who have held pop-up events at Paddler's Coffee in the past. The event itself was over in about 3 days, but many times customers who saw the event asked me if the items from that event were no longer available, or where they could buy them.

There are about six furniture artists that we are currently dealing with at "Bullpen", and they are all craftsmen. They make to order, but they do not usually wholesale to stores, so some of them could not tell us where we could find them even if a customer told them. I think some people are not good at marketing themselves, no matter how good they are at making things. On the contrary, I am not that good with my hands, but I knew that I am good at introducing various people's things to people as if they were my own. So I decided that since there were people who were making such good products, I would be their salesman.

MatsushimaWhat both "Paddlers Coffee" and "Bullpen" have in common is that they want to deal in what they love. . That is why we rarely sell anything through distributors. I actually go to the makers of the items I sell at the store and talk with them about the store I am opening and how I would like to handle the items. So during the two months before the store opened, I traveled all over Japan, from France, the U.S., and the U.K. to France, the U.S., and the U.K., mainly visiting makers of the same generation. . It's analog, but it's the most direct way. I can say this about everything in my life so far, but I value actually going to meet them, talking with them, and getting to know them.

MatsushimaOf course I choose, but this is linked to the name of the store, "Bullpen," but I felt that purchasing through wholesalers is something that everyone does, and I felt that I did not have to do that. A bullpen is a place where baseball pitchers practice pitching before taking the field. As a side note, I actually played baseball in the club through high school. In the bullpen, the pitcher and catcher try out different types of pitches, the catcher asks the pitcher, "How about this pitch? It is a place where the pitcher and catcher try out different types of pitches, and the catcher asks the pitcher, "How about this kind of pitch?

Therefore, at this store, it is a little different from simply buying directly from the maker. Like the relationship between a pitcher and a catcher in the bullpen, I am behind the scenes, and I put items on the shelves after discussing with the maker how I think the item could be better. For example, I might ask the maker to make this line a little more rounded, and the response to the actual product might be very positive. This makes us, the sellers, feel even more comfortable recommending the product to our customers.

MatsushimaYes, that's right . That is why both Shoji and I are able to explain each and every item in the "bullpen. As was the case with the coffee, we want to understand the background of the product and its creator. That is what we wanted to do with the interior design.

Like coffee shops, there are many wonderful stores in the world, each doing something wonderful. Therefore, unless they have a different sense of value from others, people will not go out of their way to come to this place. Therefore, I wanted to do something that we could only do by ourselves...for me, this meant relationships with people I know in Portland and with the people who make the products. I thought I could do that by dealing with things that were close to personal for me. Like when you have a coffee shop, the customers can tell if you are attached to them or not.

MatsushimaI also think that as long as I do interior design, I will eventually have to do a web shop, but I'm not sure if there is anything I can't get if I don't go out of my way to get it.

MatsushimaActually, we don't have a designer , we do everything.

MatsushimaAs was the case with "Paddlers Coffee," I created almost everything original, including the space. . I like to make things myself, so I come up with the ideas. For "Bullpen," I worked with Mr. Yellowtail Oka of MOBLEY WORKS, who also made the fixtures and fittings for "Paddler's Coffee," to come up with ideas, which we then had drawn up as drawings to create the space. I have my own sampling of ideas for everything, but in terms of space, I took on the challenge of doing things at "Bullpen" that were not possible at "Paddler's Coffee.

At "Paddler's Coffee," I imagined a space that was a little tall for my 29-year-old self at the time, but here, the unit price of the items handled was different, and I aimed to create a space that would age well over time, like a vintage Scandinavian space. I was also involved in the interior design of "ELLA RECORDS" and "wineshop flow" in the Nishihara shopping district, and I like to think about interior design and interior decoration, and I would like to make that my job in the future. . I think that I am able to say such a thing now that I have done this store.

Matsushima. It would be presumptuous to say that I am a skater, but I think my upbringing had a big influence on me. I was born in Nakano, and from my grandfather's generation, there was a clock shop in the shopping arcade at the north exit of Nakano Station, and my father was also the shopping arcade chairman for a long time. So I grew up in a house where you could go to the supermarket and find anything you wanted, but you had to go to the tofu shop for tofu, the butcher for meat, and so on, and do your daily shopping. That sense is still deeply rooted in me today, and the same is true of my perception of shopping arcades. I was always close to my neighbors, children and adults, men and women, grandfathers and grandmothers, so I have no resistance to having anyone in my home. Because I grew up in such an environment, I feel that I was able to naturally interact with people and serve them, even if I did not experience eating or drinking. . I think the environment in which I grew up, including my experience abroad, has something to do with it, although it is just a coincidence.

MatsushimaSo we want people to come to our store regardless of whether they are young or old, and in fact, that is how it is. . We are happy to have an environment where people can enjoy our coffee as good coffee, even if they don't know that it is made in Portland, or that it is made from Portland beans. Customers who go to Paddler's Coffee stop by the Bullpen, and I like the sense of distance. . That's true, and there is an elementary school and a daycare center in this town, so there are many children and mothers. I hope that the town will become a place where young people, mothers, and the elderly can all enjoy coffee, curry, vintage clothing, records, and art.

I approached the art gallery for the location next to the "Bullpen" not only as a friend and for the development of the city, but also because of my experience when I was in Portland, skating with my friends and going to the gallery without knowing what to expect. When art is present in everyday life like that, you might decide to buy a painting and hang it in your house, and I think it is very important for children to have the opportunity to be exposed to art in their daily lives. I always want to open a store that is welcoming to everyone.