9 years of toff and day 0 as TF.

Kakuda: I have known Mr. Seki for a long time, starting when he was working at 1LDK, so we have known each other for more than 10 years.

Seki: When Waltz opened, I had already moved to Paris. I decided to open a pop-up store in Tokyo, and I thought it would be interesting to sell cassette tapes there, so I consulted with Mr. Tsunoda. I thought it would be interesting if I could sell cassette tapes there, so I consulted with Mr. Tsunoda and used the "Waltz" cassette tape as background music. Since "Tof" and "Waltz" are close to each other, I decided to play the cassette I selected for "Waltz" as background music every month.

Kakuda: You also bought a boom box at our house.

Okamoto: Yes, I think it is. About 4 years ago, I believe. Until then, we had been playing it on a device, but "Waltz" opened at the same time I entered "Toff" and I remember talking with Seki-san about how nice it would be to play background music on a cassette tape.

Okamoto: Until then, I had the feeling that I was just playing music, but with cassettes, I can now take the initiative and choose the music I want to listen to. I choose the music at Waltz every month, and I enjoy that too. Mr. Tsunoda gives me advice on what he thinks would be good for background music. The customers' reactions have been very positive.

Okamoto: . simply music that me and Suzuki are interested in.

Suzuki: First, look at the jacket and read the caption that Mr. Tsunoda wrote. That comment is very important.

Okamoto: Yes, yes, I want to listen to the comments. So, I don't have a particular genre in mind.

Seki: Whenever I return to Japan, I always stop by Waltz and buy some items for my store in Paris, and I always consult with Mr. Tsunoda. I like music that makes me feel good, so I talk with Mr. Tsunoda and ask him to broaden my horizons.

Kakuda: If asked for a recommendation, I will make one, but unlike a clothing store, a music store does not follow the customer to the side and serve him or her. . Therefore, most customers make their own selections. We provide the necessary information in the captions on our products and on Instagram. We play music rather loudly in the store, so many customers ask, "What song is playing right now? ." and many of them buy it.

Okamoto: . their approach to customer service may be similar to ours. We don't really put a lot of effort into serving customers in a grueling manner.

Suzuki: Yes, I do. I don't try to explain every time I touch the clothes. If they seem to be concerned about it, I would just talk to them lightly.

Okamoto: But over the past year or so, I've been getting more and more requests for advice, roughly in the form of, "I need pants to go with my leather shoes. If that's the case, how about something like this? . Of course, I make suggestions.

Kakuda: Is that style of customer service something you are committed to as a store?

Suzuki: . It wasn't a particular decision, it just seemed to come naturally. The store is small, so I wanted to keep a distance so that it would not feel oppressive, and I wanted people to be able to look at it at their leisure.

Kakuda: The number of customers from overseas was high, so the number of visits to the store decreased, but the number of mail order sales increased instead, and in total, the number of customers has not changed. I have been in the Internet business for a long time, and I decided to specialize in tangibles, so I opened the store. . Even though mail order sales have improved, I have not changed that idea, and I would like to continue to focus on the store.

Okamoto: Our online sales certainly increased, and we felt that we had to increase our online sales as well. However, when we tried to do so, surprisingly, the number of visitors to our stores did not change. On the contrary, the number of people who came to our stores increased because they decided to visit the stores where we stood after we put more effort into online sales. I realized once again that that is what a store is all about.

Kakuda: . I still want people to come to the store. . we only put out new releases for the Waltz mail order. . But there is also a lot of music in the store that no one knows about. . I want people to choose based on their intuition, not logic, such as if they like the jacket or if the caption comments suit their taste. I think of cassette tapes as being like art books, and I feel like I am selling art. I think this is a new sensibility that other music stores do not have. The cassettes we carry don't have seasons like clothes, and even if they did, it's not as if you couldn't listen to them next summer. The products are not inventory, they are assets.

Okamoto: We are a select store, but like a vintage clothing store, we want to carry clothes that can be worn next season and even several years from now.

Suzuki: . We don't really follow trends. . We check trends, but we don't stock accordingly.

Okamoto: Since both Suzuki and I are buyers, we only stock what we like, although sometimes we happen to fall in love with a trend. The cycle of fashion is so fast nowadays that I think many customers worry that their clothes will go out of style after wearing them for one season, but I want them to wear them without worrying about it.

Suzuki: . yes, yes. I think people who wear clothes regardless of whether they are trendy or not have style and are simply cool.

Okamoto: Our proposal is "everyday wear. If you like it, we want you to wear it for a long time.

Kakuda: Nowadays, trends are fragmented, aren't they? The same is true of music. It is difficult to create works that are purchased by millions of people, and genres are becoming more and more fragmented. There are so many genres that even I have not been able to catch up with. Music that I think is good after one listen is not so much good music as music that is easy to understand. An elementary school student would not listen to the "Velvet Underground" for the first time and think it is truly wonderful (laughs). (laughs) So, my theory is that easy-to-understand music is not the same as good music.

Suzuki: Before we became Corona Disaster, we had a project called "Dokodemo Tofu. This was a service where you could tell us what kind of clothes you wanted and we would bring the clothes directly to your home or office, without you having to come to the store. When we were about to start it, the Corona Disaster happened, and it has stopped.

Seki: When you have a large staff, it is difficult to unify the level of knowledge and customer service, but if it is "TOFU," it is "TOFU" whether it is Okamoto-san or Suzuki-san, no matter who comes. I would like to do something that not everyone else is doing.

Kakuda: I think it's good to do something different. I am not in the fashion industry, so I am looking at this objectively, but I think everyone is thinking the same way. I think that unless we do something innovative, we will not survive.

Seki: I always get new tips from Mr. Tsunoda when I ask him for advice about my work. I often find it helpful to hear from someone who is not in apparel.

Kakuda: We sell different things, but we run the same store, so we have a lot in common. We both have stores outside of commercial areas, which is good in some ways and difficult in others. But there are many correct answers, so I don't think that what I am doing is the only correct answer. Toph" is celebrating its 9th anniversary, and "Waltz" is a little over 5 years old. . I would like to continue while examining the reasons why we are able to continue.

Suzuki: I believe that we have to keep what we keep and change what we change.

Okamoto: We need to analyze ourselves as to why we are able to continue, and then we will be able to move on to the next step. We will continue to do our best.