Best kept secret in Osaka

Different countries, different customs – this adage seems to apply to the pet supplies trade too, and the Aqua Tailors aquatics shop in Osaka, Japan, is no exception. In the USA and in Europe the trend is towards large pet stores designed with the retail experience in mind, where the customer’s attention is engaged even before entering the shop; here the focus is on simplicity. The outside of the store, which is located in a suburb of Osaka, deviates from the usual norms: an unadorned sign on the street, around 20 parking spaces, a few aquarium requisites and a seating area next to the entrance. Even the signs with the opening times are handwritten – the Japanese appear to attach importance to other things. Ten years in the aquarium business Aqua Tailors was established in 2002. Its creation ran counter to the trend in Japan at the time, because the heyday of Japanese aquatics shops, when even stores that only concentrated on catfish, dwarf cichlids or killifish could do well, was already over. The Osaka store covers the complete range of freshwater and marine aquariums for this reason, although the emphasis is on items that are currently in vogue in the aquatics business when it comes to stock. Nowadays such items include various types of dwarf shrimp, for example, for which the store has organised a competition, the Asia Pacific Shrimp Contest, every autumn for a number of years now. Cleanliness is king On entering the store, customers are struck immediately by the level of cleanliness that prevails everywhere. This is true not only of the many aquariums in Aqua Tailors, but also of the aisles between the tanks and shelves. Admittedly, the shopfittings are not exactly on a par with those of modern American or European pet stores, which is perhaps due to the desperate shortage of space in Japan. There are no fully clad sales enclosures and even the aisles between the aquariums tend to be quite narrow. The tanks themselves are on shelves of planed wood that are screwed together, reminiscent of private breeding facilities in days gone by. But no expense has been spared where the aquariums and technical equipment are concerned. On the contrary, high-quality clear glass tanks have been used, and all of them boast the advantage of separate filter systems and generously proportioned lighting. Attention to detail What makes the store so intriguing and interesting for visitors is the manner in which the aquatic species are presented. Tanks are not overstocked and…