- A usual Japanese pharmacy had a dark and gloomy atmosphere when one opens the glass doors to enter. Matsumoto Kiyoshi is currently at the top in the drug store industry by growing rapidly in central metropolitan areas. Its stores are made to have frank open space for customers easily to get in by clearing off that old imageE; making lighting brighter, and< removing doors. President Matsumoto Kazuna is aiming for "making a store that has a feeling of openness where one can pickpocket easily," and that has led to a kind of misunderstanding on television and in magazines that this is "A store that allows pickpocketing."
- Matsumoto Kiyoshi drug store takes its name from its founder Mr. Matsumoto Kiyoshi, who served two terms as Mayor of Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture. The founder had become famous by creating "Suguyaru-Ka" (Department of Doing Things Immediately) when he became Mayor of Matsudo City. Formally, the company name was "K.K. Matsumoto Kiyoshi." It was founded in 1932 in Matsudo City and started out as "Matsumoto Drug Store" in an almost 20 square meter store operated solely by the founder. After that, in 1963 he inspected America, which was the advanced country of the distribution system, took in the new chain store theory, and really began development of the chain store the following year. Sales at a point in March of 1998 were 149.1 billion-yen, operating profits were almost 7.5 billion-yen and the number of stores has already reached 323. Last year they increased by 62 stores. The same company, aside from drug stores, also operates a few supermarkets, convenience stores, and home centers. Aside from medicines, they also handle a large amount of cosmetics, sundries, and do-it-yourself goods and each year each section records increasing sales exceeding 20% of the previous year.
- Every store is established in front of a station on first class land. This is Matsumoto Kiyoshi's management technique. The advance into the heart of Tokyo began with the opening of the Ueno Ameyoko store in July 1987. High school girls and female workers are Matsumoto Kiyoshi's main customers. Among those customers have come phrases like "Matsu-Kiyo iku?" (Wanna go to Matsu-Kiyo?) and "Matsu-Kiyo suru" ((Let's) go to Matsu-Kiyo).
- Matsumoto Kiyoshi's prosperity secrets are as follows:
- Be cheaper than other stores. With large quantity sales and stocking at low prices, things can be sold for cheap. A portable steam curling iron costs 6,000 yen at a department store, but it can be bought at Matsu-Kiyo for a little more than 3,000 yen. High school girls, who only have a little more than 20,000 yen by adding the approximately 13,000 yen that parents give for allowance and part time wages, really owe a great deal to the existence of the name that once heard is not forgotten - "Matsumoto Kiyoshi." Furthermore, from long ago medicines and cosmetics were profitable products in Japan and if profits were lowered some, they could be sold for even cheaper.
- With a rich selection of products, anything can be bought at the store and there is absolutely no popular product out of stock. Competitor goods are lined up in rows and can be bought after comparing. In the stairwell that leads up to the second and third floors, products are displayed in a jostling manner and shopping can be accomplished while picking out the products. The building's upper levels and basement are used as a warehouse and not running out of popular products is taken into consideration. For high school girls, who are obsessed with having fun and have a fixation with cosmetics and beautification, Matsu-Kiyo is, so to speak, a "red lantern" (used to advertise cheap taverns in town) to guys; for the girls, it is like a "tavern for the soul" or a "Buddhist temple to run away to for the soul's relief." The rich selection and cheapness of the products appeals to the female workers and they drop in to Matsu-Kiyo to shop on their way home from work. Female workers who catch colds also buy cosmetics, body care products, and diet products when they buy cold medicine.
- "Testers" are most welcome. At regular cosmetic stores, nail polish, lipstick, and other similar product testers are not liked, but controversially, Matsu-Kiyo heartedly welcomes testers. Furthermore, they also have special beautician staff that give advice and women customers can take their time in considering their purchases.
- The Matsu-Kiyo operation idea is "Think Globally, Sell Locally" and has combined the two to make the word "Glocal (global + local)." In researching actual chain stores in America, the importance of "putting one's heart and soul in locally" seems real and the line up of products varies with the area. It is not only to make money for the company, but it is necessary to think globally while putting one's heart and soul into the consumer profiting. Furthermore, to make it concrete: 1) make stores that will stick to the community, plan for shopping arcade renewal, make a shopping center that is like a highway oasis that combines suburb-type drug stores and power centers; 2) aim towards lining up daily-use products, create the style of getting out of the business condition (lifestyle assortment); and 3) in order to create more customers traffic, have an idea of casual shopping (making frank stores, creating worthy prices, mapping out eluding short stock strategies, etc.).
- President Kazuna says, "The Matsu-Kiyo stock managers are high school girls. It is better to listen to their opinions." Until now, under a top-down system, the stores sold products that were made by makers and advertised by the mass media, but now it seems that the high school girls are developing the products. Since a lot of marketing hints can be won by looking at their behavior, the Matsu-Kiyo employees observe the girls' behavior around the store and around the town.
- The Matsu-Kiyo image is "The confusion of piled up products makes the store small" and that is not good at all. However, since a wide variety of products are kept and are cheap, it seems ridiculous to buy at convenience stores. When people don't have a lot of money, they can wander and look at the local Matsu-Kiyo, and then they end up buying extra. High schools girls from Hokkaido that were on a school trip to Tokyo shopped at Matsu-Kiyo and boasted "We did Matsu-Kiyo" after taking home the yellow bags that have "Matsumoto Kiyoshi" written on them.
- Matsu-Kiyo corresponds to 1) deregulation; 2) division of medicine; and 3) mitigation of resale system goods that are caused by sales of medicines at convenience stores and the abolishment large-store laws, and aims for the activation of shopping arcades and highway oasis-izing suburban stores.
- Matsu-Kiyo's future extends endlessly that it wishes to advance to other areas besides metropolitan areas and overseas.
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