No way in hell I’m buying a sofa without sitting in it. They never feel like one would expect.
Comment on This bookstore wraps all books in plastic.
mastertigurius@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Sounds like Fully Booked in the Philippines. Books aren’t allowed to be browsed before you buy them, sofas aren’t allowed to be sat in before you buy them. It’s nonsense.
binarytobis@lemmy.world 3 days ago
inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Do you got a source for that? I wasn’t finding anything to explain why or if this is true. Not trying to call BS, I just need to know more.
mastertigurius@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The source is me living in the Philippines for many, many years. Go to the department stores, and they will direct you away from the sofas if you sit on them. Can’t sell a used sofa. Most businesses in the Philippines operate in this way with squeezing a profit from every little thing they can.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 4 days ago
It was Tsutaya in Cambodia.
Burghler@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Japan does love to wrap literally everything purchasable in stores in plastic. Abroad wouldn’t be immune to this since shared supply chains.
StillAlive@piefed.world 3 days ago
I only saw hentai books wrapped in plastic in Japan but I didn’t go to many bookstores while there.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 days ago
The whole idea plastic waste is bad doesn’t seem to have made it over to Asia.
k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
When we wrap out books, it’s usually manga. But it’s weird for Tsutaya of all stores to do it because the ones here aren’t wrapped and they were the first to promote customers to read before purchasing.
gedfromgont@piefed.ca 3 days ago
Hilariously before you named the store I was thinking back of my experience in exactly a Tsutaya in Tokyo.
Found some cool origami books that I had to take a chance on buying them, since I couldn’t look through them as they were also wrapped in plastic.
Extra fun tidbit, I bought them tax-free, which is super straightforward in Japan, and then they told me I should not remove the plastic wrap and “use” the books, since that would invalidate their tax-free status and I’d have to repay tax…
mastertigurius@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Fully Booked is popular, but that’s probably because it’s the only actual bookstore franchise in the Philippines. Most other book stores are family owned stores that sell used books. National Bookstore is a joke, and mostly sells stationary.
lechekaflan@lemmy.world 2 days ago
National could barely able to sell publications as by 2010s nearly everyone went to spend more time online – ebooks, social media, etc. – and even the browsers have disappeared as magazines started to end publication, so leaving the stationery business the only thing keeping it afloat.
Strangely, asides from Fully Booked and that small Japanese bookstore in an uppity part of Manila, the Big Bad Wolf book festival draws a large crowd of bookworms.