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The NEW YORK TIMES has a piece on the RanKing RanQueen chain.
At first glance, the neon-accented stores look like the sort of generic gift shops you would find in a mall: Backlighted display stands hold magazines, CD’s, candy and lots of knickknacks. Closer inspection reveals that like items have been grouped together, and each product is accompanied by a small sign indicating its ranking within the category. The rankings are based on sales data from the Tokyu Hands department stores and numbers from independent research companies, and RanKing RanQueen sells only the top 3, 5 or 10 items in each category. The logic is simple yet compelling. Why buy any old sweet-potato candy when you can buy the No. 1 sweet potato candy?
Link via Marxy, who offers his own commentary.