Sasuga Calls it Quits
Cambridge, Massachusetts based Sasuga Japanese Bookstore announced last week that it has ceased operations as a result of “the current economic climate” and “changes in the international bookselling market” (presumably including consumers increasingly importing Japanese books and similar goods directly from retailers based in Japan instead of relying on American import companies). Sasuga was founded in 1993 and was a well known presence at major nationwide anime conventions.
Source: Anime News Network
Related Posts
About The Author
john
3 Comments
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
That’s sad news to hear. It makes me wonder how well Book Off and Kinokuniya book stores are faring here in the U.S. during these tough economic times.
Bookstores IN GENERAL are not doing very well…
Over half the Waldenbooks chain stores were shut down in the past 18 months. The Borders part of that chain is also doing poorly and has seen more than a few of its stores shut down in many cities across the US. Speaking of my own local area’s Borders — they’ve definitely seen better days (music section has been pared down to the bone, and the DVD section is a shadow of what it was) and are are no longer THE bookstore to go to. That honor belongs to Barnes & Noble now.
The thing with importation of books is that it’s a major pain-in-the-!$!.
It’s hard enough to deal with native Japanese speakers in US-based stores, but unless an overseas store has an English-area of their website I would say it’s useless for at least 85% of us to use overseas booksellers.
I still find it’s generally easier to order from a US vendor unless they’re completely clueless. Sometimes you get a break on shipping, sometimes you don’t. Buyer beware and always check out for mark-ups! Rule of thumb — if the store marks up the item more than 10-15%, I wouldn’t buy the item from them… Be aware of what the yen-dollar exchange ratios are.
I really don’t like praising them, but B+N was smarter with its inventory. Borders over-diversified to the point that they started lagging behind street dates for products which mattered.