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.
She will be open until Sanrio bring up the van and takes stuff back to San Francisco early march. A lilt clarification: Sanrio It look Nakajima is leaving the retail business. Sanrio would like the owner to stay as a Sanrio store but the rent was to high and after 20+ years she decided to retire. prices now at 40% off and I went out to buy an 24 inch plush, replace my wallet and went to Fred Meyers and replace my ratty sheets. I sleep on a traditional Japanese Futon. it make it very convenient living in a studio apartment. Ps. if I had the money I would look into opening a store but I rather go independent and expand to some sort of Things of Another World of Japan Pop Culture, covering Sanrio, Loitia fashion and Anime.
Yes the Washington Square, Oregon store is closing but no date is given yet. Still things are getting weird, it has to do with Nakajima closing all it Sanrio stores, the only ones that will be left are five or so Sanrio owned stores. In other words, there probably be more store closings. The owner of the Washington Square will retire. She said something about Nakajima license to market Hello kitty was pulled and the problem with counterfeit goods. Did Nakajima decide to end licensing of Sanrio products or Sanrio pulled the license? The plot thickens.
One more thing, it has not escape me how Hello Kitty item are now being sold outside the boutique store like what I say at Fry’s today.
Recently I had been noting a rash of Sanrio stores closing around the country. Stores are closing in Northern California, Houston Texas and the Dallas store is in Lockout according to friends at Hello Kitty Junkies. In the news another store is closing in St Louis area new story notes January is the time many business end their lease and close down perhaps why the reason for the rash of closings . Update: a member of hello Kitty Junkies reports her local store in Virginia is closing. The Even in Portland we are not immune; Sanrio Surprise is closing and merging with the Washington Square Hello Kitty Sore. While this does not mean Hello Kitty is going away but this will have an impact on Sanrio’s financial numbers and put a damper on Hello Kitty’s 40th anniversary. Already hedge investors are responding as Sanrio is one of the top three stocks being sorted on the Japan’s Topix 500 index.
