Word: mono
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...1970s, vendors of all stripes tramped Tokyo's streets, armed with goods and a gimmick. The caramel-candy man told tales; the frog-oil man rapped; the herb seller dressed like a hermit. Most are now gone, replaced by 24-hour convenience stores and complex vending machines, but Table-Mono, a company that peddles healthy tofu products, has revitalized the once fading industry. Table-Mono sellers blow a catchy tune on toy trumpets and cater to both a housebound and nostalgic elderly population and a younger group who are health-conscious and in a hurry. (See "What the World Eats...
...Table-Mono has a gimmick too: a troupe of charming 20-something vendors. The company, founded in 2003 with a handful of sellers hawking mainly tofu, now dispatches 100 vendors into the different parts of Tokyo each day, selling everything from fermented beans and tofu pudding to soy-milk soup and tofu for pets. With wooden carts stacked high with turquoise crates, and a signature two-note trumpet call, the sellers stand out. Many of them moonlight as artists, and they are encouraged to develop their own vending persona. "Customers want to talk to a real person," says Kakinuma Daisuke...
...Particularly keen on conversation are the elderly, who account for more than one-fifth of the Japanese population and are increasingly living alone. Customers 65 and up make up a majority of Table-Mono's business. "This is one of the main reasons for [Table-Mono's] success," says Yamazaki. "Many older people can't walk to the supermarket; some have no friends and stay alone in the house all day." (See historical pictures in "Japan and the World...
...cold, drizzly day, Kitaro Matsumoto, a 27-year-old Table-Mono vendor, pulls his cart down a side street in the riverside Kachidoki neighborhood. He wears a blue bandana, a yellow slicker and purple pants and he toots a plastic gold trumpet...
...Mono. I got it and it rocked my world...