Maid-Boom soon to be over?
Tokyo has a glut of women prancing around in saucy French maid outfits, according to Cyzo (April).
Tokyo's Akihabara district is a Mecca for otaku geeks, who have showed a fancy for women decked out in maid costumes.
Maid cafes, where the waitresses wore the uniforms and treated customers like their bosses sprouted up throughout the district, with all sorts of other "maid" business following suit.
Up until recently, the maid caper was a cash cow for loads of entrepreneurs with a yen to make a quick buck, but the monthly notes that things have recently taken a turn.
Moe Burger, a fast food joint where the burgers and fries were flipped by women in maid outfits, opened in Akihabara amid great fanfare in summer last year, but closed its doors for good in January, just seven months after it started.
Magic Tea Room Candy Fruit, a retail outlet selling maid mobile phones, opened in November and lasted just two months before the shutters went down.
"Operators of sex services, cabaret clubs and all sorts of other fly-by-night businesses are getting into the maid line," a maid cafe insider tells Cyzo. "These people aren't really thinking about being in the maid business for the long-term."
Nonetheless, even though there has been a decline in the maid for money trend, people still haven't turned away from the frilled frock set, with all sorts of outlandish operations opening their doors: like the maid foot massage parlors, and the bizarre maid photo development service.
Economic commentator and figure collector Takuro Morinaga has an easy explanation for why some maid businesses are "maid to last" and others aren't. He says that maid operations catering exclusively to pure geeks have shown to have the firmer bottom lines; while the Johnny-come-lately capers haven't been able to establish a regular clientele, and this proves to be their downfall.
"The most successful maid businesses in Akihabara are (maid cafes) Jam Akihabara and Cure Maid Cafe," the economist tells Cyzo. "These are stores that clearly target the otaku types who frequent Akihabara." More at: MSN.co.jp
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