Categories
Magazines

Tachiyomi, Not Quite Dead Yet

Wanted to follow-up my recent post on “The Death of Tachiyomi.” Some readers may have taken the bombastic post title a bit too literally, thinking that suddenly Japan had turned into on anti-browsing state. As I wrote in the post, not only was this something I spotted in just one 7-11, like I said, even other 7-11s weren’t keeping everything wrapped (although most of the women titles are, but that’s to keep the included goodies safely inside). But it’s still quite shocking that at least one store went as far as it did.

But my friend Alastair Townsend (BAKOKO) made a good point on Twitter: Since most magazines really make their money from ad sales, someone is still making money, even if readers are just seeing the ads while reading and standing at the store.

Categories
Magazines

The Death of Tachiyomi

Tachiyomi is a Japanese term that means reading as you stand, and it’s certainly something you tend to see a lot of when you walk into a convenience store here. Over the years I’ve been seeing more and more stores keep the magazines tied with plastic wrap to prevent reading — or also to keep people from grabbing the goodies that come in a lot of fashion magazines.

I was a bit surprised though when I walked in a 7-11 the other day and found every single magazine on the shelves tied that way — the photo above is of just one section, but all other sections, including comics and women’s magazines, were bound in this way. Now, it could be that just this store’s manager felt that his customers were overdoing it — I’ve been to other 7-11s since and did not see the same thing — but it’s still disappointing to see this, no longer able to flip through a magazine before you buy.