Village Vanguard (Japanese bookstore)
Village Vanguard is a Book store Chain that is ran by Village Vanguard Corporation which is located in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture in Japan. The concept of the store is "A playful book store"(ja:遊べる本屋). [1]Although it is a book store, it carries a wide variety of products other from books, thing such as CDs, DVDs, and SPICEs which makes it close to being a variety store.
History
Village Vanguard was founded by Keiichi Kikuchi(ja:菊地敬一) in 1986.[1] The first Village Vanguard store opened in the Tenpaku ward of Nagoya.
The store was named after Village Vanguard, a jazz club located in New York City. This is because Kikuchi first planned on playing jazz in the bookstore, which actually never happened.[2]
Timeline[3]
- December 1986 -Opens first store in Tenpaku ward, Nagoya, Aichi.[4]
- June 1988 -Second store opens in Midori ward, Nagoya, using a former pool bar. (Is now closed)
- May 1998 -Changes company name into Village Vanguard Co., Ltd.
- 1999 -Number of stores reach 10.
- February 2003 -Opens their first diner type store in Asagaya, Tokyo. (Is now closed)
- April 2003 -Listing gets approved by Japan Securities Dealers Association, Gets Listed on JASDAQ. ( Japan Securities Dealers Association moves to JASDAQ in December 2004)
- April 2004 -Number of stores reach 100.
- November 2006 -Number of Stores reach 200.
- May 2007 -Buys up all the stocks of TITICACA Limited. Along side with subsidiary acquisition, changes it into a stock company.
- September 2009 -Establishes Village Vanguard(Hong Kong)Limited with Era-Bee Limited.
- March 2011 -Establishes Village Vanguard Webbed Co., Ltd. in order to convert their "Village Vanguard Online" service into a stock corporation.
- April 2011 -Establishes TITICACA HONGKONG LIMITED.
- April 2016 -TITICACA Co., Ltd. becomes insolvent.
- August 2016 -Sells all stocks of TITICACA Co., Ltd.
- October 2016 -Pulls out of all business in Hong Kong.
- July 2017 -Opens Store in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Stores
Village Vanguard has 358 shops in total all across Japan, [1] with each store having a completely different layout. The layout of products is one of the biggest characteristics of this store; instead of making the layout simply by category, they locate their product based on the employee's creativity.[5]
Lists
Books
Although Village Vanguard is distinct as a bookstore, their book sales only makes up for around 30% of their total sales.[3] Unlike majority of the chain book stores, their line up of books varies a lot in every store, because the selection of books are basically up to the person in charge of each store.[6]
Collaborations
Village vanguard is known for collaborating with various things, such as bands, companies, youtubers and more.[7][8][9] The merchandise varies time to time, and they produce things such as clothing, key chains, towels to bowls, sandals etc.
SPICE
SPICE is a term used in Village Vanguard which stands for SELECT, POP, INTELLIGENCE, CULTURE and ENTERTAINMENT. It is used to refer to all the products except books, CDs and DVDs, things such as toys, clothes, accessories, etc.[1]
POPs
POPs are small signs they put around the store, written on bright neon colored paper with markers. They basically explain in a brief sentence in a kind of humorous way.
Cites
- ^ a b c d "会社概要". www.village-v.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-10-21.
- ^ ウェアハウススタイル（エイ出版社、2015年）69ページ
- ^ a b "有価証券報告書". www.village-v.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-10-23.
- ^ 「ヴィレッジヴァンガードコーポレーション、書籍・雑貨販売（新進気鋭）」 日本経済新聞2005年5月2日朝刊、11ページ
- ^ "ヴィレヴァンの「ごちゃまぜ」陳列論～店舗は三次元の雑誌のように | AdverTimes（アドタイ） by 宣伝会議". AdverTimes（アドタイ）宣伝会議が運営する、広告界のニュース＆情報プラットフォーム (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-10-21.
- ^ 「ユニークな品ぞろえの書店、ヴィレッジヴァンガード――文句があるか（異能経営）」 日経流通新聞1999年9月28日、28ページ
- ^ Thomas, Samuel (2018-09-23). "The steady pace of mainstream fashion". The Japan Times Online. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
- ^ "ケリン×ヴィレヴァン ぶちとばコラボグッズ緊急発売決定！". www.village-v.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-10-22.
- ^ "マキシマム ザ ホルモン×ヴィレッジヴァンガード、コラボグッズセットの発売が決定－rockinon.com｜https://rockinon.com/news/detail/88297". rockinon.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-10-22.