お誕生日、おめでとう！楽天堂～～
29th February 2008, Friday
As we know 29th February only comes one every 4 years (a leap year) & if your birthday happens to fall on this faithful day, it can be quite a dilemma whether to celebrate the day you befallen into this world on the 28th or celebrate on the 1st of March...
Within my limited records of acquaintances, there might be this girl who I had a crush on during my sophomore year in NUS who has this unique birthday.
Otherwise the next one would be this place which brought me such happiness and laughters in the recent years, the one fittingly named La Tendo (or Raku Tendou) which means "the heaven of happiness"...
The pre-La Tendo days began when 3 local toys collectors decided to pit together a business concept which merged with their collectible interest as well as ingeniously made use of Vincent's significant contact in Japan as they shipped in Japanese toys and figurines, predominantly capsule toys (or gashapons) at that period.
My reunion with Vincent & Reedy was well-documented back in 2003 and I spent a great deal of Sundays for that year tagging along their little solicitation for local Japanese toys collectors in Clarke Quay....
By late 2003, the lads were orchestrating a stir in local collectible retailing scene which at that point being quite saturated with some small fry players to add competition with bigger establishments like Action City, Earth X, Dollz Inc. etc.
By February 2004, the new shop located in a relative unknown location of Sunshine Plaza was up and running to the joy of many collectors ...
However it wasn't all smooth sailing for my dear friends of La Tendo over the next 2 years or so....
One major shareholder left the shop, but business still goes on...
The market reached saturation point and price war was waging but they maintained not to caught up with the war themselves, upholding the integrity as well as not pushing the store to doom like many other retailers over the years...
In the midst of it, they decided to alter their business mode a bit and regulate the items they were bringing in, and continually winning loyal customers with their friendliness...
Over the years, many might had labeled them as "high price retailers" and scorned over their reluctance to lower price in local forums, but in the end those were also transient collectors who didn't survive long in this collection scene...
Those loyal ones remained to be the main cornerstone to keep La Tendo afloat and as a result together with the remaining big guns, the local collectible retailing scene is now dwindled to a handful.
La Tendo remained to be the only one to offer a myriad of selection as well as trying their utmost best to bring in exclusives from events like the biannual Wonder Festivals.
2007 marked the end of the road for the Sunshine Plaza era as the unscrupulous landlord threw an underhand which left a bad taste in the mouth.
The aftermath turned out for the better as they shifted to the current location of the Kallang Leisure Park which I might be cynical at first but felt with the establishment of the Sports Hub and the completion of the Circle Line, it could be one of the "in" place...
Loyal customers continued to patronize which is a sight to behold for a supporter of La Tendo myself....
Once again today marks the actual 1st (or in reality 4th) birthday to this shop with their crew who I count as some of my truest and most treasured nakama-tachi...
This evening together with the rest of the Lovely Frenz gang, we shall have a small celebration and we sure hoped by 2012 (the next leap year), La Tendo would further metamorphose into a bigger outlet at a prime location (maybe Marina) yet we are all still done to our roots and remained as the fun-loving bunch back in February 2004!
As we know 29th February only comes one every 4 years (a leap year) & if your birthday happens to fall on this faithful day, it can be quite a dilemma whether to celebrate the day you befallen into this world on the 28th or celebrate on the 1st of March...
Within my limited records of acquaintances, there might be this girl who I had a crush on during my sophomore year in NUS who has this unique birthday.
Otherwise the next one would be this place which brought me such happiness and laughters in the recent years, the one fittingly named La Tendo (or Raku Tendou) which means "the heaven of happiness"...
The pre-La Tendo days began when 3 local toys collectors decided to pit together a business concept which merged with their collectible interest as well as ingeniously made use of Vincent's significant contact in Japan as they shipped in Japanese toys and figurines, predominantly capsule toys (or gashapons) at that period.
My reunion with Vincent & Reedy was well-documented back in 2003 and I spent a great deal of Sundays for that year tagging along their little solicitation for local Japanese toys collectors in Clarke Quay....
By late 2003, the lads were orchestrating a stir in local collectible retailing scene which at that point being quite saturated with some small fry players to add competition with bigger establishments like Action City, Earth X, Dollz Inc. etc.
By February 2004, the new shop located in a relative unknown location of Sunshine Plaza was up and running to the joy of many collectors ...
However it wasn't all smooth sailing for my dear friends of La Tendo over the next 2 years or so....
One major shareholder left the shop, but business still goes on...
The market reached saturation point and price war was waging but they maintained not to caught up with the war themselves, upholding the integrity as well as not pushing the store to doom like many other retailers over the years...
In the midst of it, they decided to alter their business mode a bit and regulate the items they were bringing in, and continually winning loyal customers with their friendliness...
Over the years, many might had labeled them as "high price retailers" and scorned over their reluctance to lower price in local forums, but in the end those were also transient collectors who didn't survive long in this collection scene...
Those loyal ones remained to be the main cornerstone to keep La Tendo afloat and as a result together with the remaining big guns, the local collectible retailing scene is now dwindled to a handful.
La Tendo remained to be the only one to offer a myriad of selection as well as trying their utmost best to bring in exclusives from events like the biannual Wonder Festivals.
2007 marked the end of the road for the Sunshine Plaza era as the unscrupulous landlord threw an underhand which left a bad taste in the mouth.
The aftermath turned out for the better as they shifted to the current location of the Kallang Leisure Park which I might be cynical at first but felt with the establishment of the Sports Hub and the completion of the Circle Line, it could be one of the "in" place...
Loyal customers continued to patronize which is a sight to behold for a supporter of La Tendo myself....
Once again today marks the actual 1st (or in reality 4th) birthday to this shop with their crew who I count as some of my truest and most treasured nakama-tachi...
This evening together with the rest of the Lovely Frenz gang, we shall have a small celebration and we sure hoped by 2012 (the next leap year), La Tendo would further metamorphose into a bigger outlet at a prime location (maybe Marina) yet we are all still done to our roots and remained as the fun-loving bunch back in February 2004!
Japanese word of the day: ジェットコースター ~jie-tto-coo-su-taa (Roller Coaster) It surely had been a rollercoaster ride over the past 4 years for La Tendo...Otanjobi Omedatou!
posted by Kei at
4:14 PM
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