It‘s sad to see when a store closes three is worst. The Washington Square Store and Beaverton Sanrio Surprise stores are closed. The Clackamas Sanrio Surprise will close soon. I talked to the owner; we both share the concern that with the store closing it will be harder to get other Sanrio characters other than Hello Kitty.
Before going I bought an Ichigoman Plush. The current designer Yuko Yamaguchi had to say about Ichigoman:
“Asked about her next challenge, Yamaguchi said she wants to attract boys.”I want boys to join the superhero Ichigoman fan club. Unlike other Sanrio characters, Ichigoman is a fighting character. We aim to make it into an anime and ultimately making it a TV series of a story about a hero”
That is why I had to add one to my collection even though I wanted a Darkgrapeman plush.
I was at a Nakajima SF warehouse liquidation sale event this past weekend.
A Nakajima manager told me this has something to do with Sanrio aggressively pushing for licensed merchandises sold at big retailers. No more boutique stores!
That what I thought. I noticed how Hello Kitty items are popping up at, Target, BestBuy, Sears …. Still where this will leave us who want a higher quality of Hello Kitty items or larger selection?
But why it closed down
The answer was the owner retired. I knew the owner of the Washington Square and Beaverton Mall Sanrio Surprise. Sanrio did not want her to close the store but buy it back and run it as an independent store. The problem is the lad was 70 years old and decided it was a good time to retire. I wish I had the resources to buy the business.