Robot stores marching ahead in OsakaFrom Daily Yomiuri Online [via robots.net]
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Popular demand has prompted two Osaka robot specialty shops to expand and upgrade their stock, suggesting that the city's efforts to boost the local economy through the robot industry might be paying off.
One of the shops, Robo Cafe in Nishi Ward, allows patrons to use and play with the robots in the store. It was reopened on April 29 after renovations.
Prior to its reopening, the shop displayed about 450 types of robots, such as tin toys, pet robots, and fighter robots in its 60-square-meter showroom.
In response to customer requests, it removed dining tables from the cafe section of the shop and increased the types of robots on display to about 650.
Since opening in October, the cafe has had 100 to 150 visitors per day.
"It's more than we expected," said a spokesman for Gyrowalk Inc., the cafe's operator in Nishi Ward. In April, the cafe increased the number of robot-assembling events to twice a week from once or twice a month.
Meanwhile, Robot Factory in Naniwa Ward, which opened in December 2004, reopened at a new location on Wednesday in the hope of attracting more customers.
The size of the store's showroom, which displays about 10 types of robots, including house-sitter robots, has tripled to 50 square meters.
According to a spokesman for Nipponbashi Machizukuri Shinko, the store's operator in Naniwa Ward: "People of all ages are now coming here, even those in their 60s. The market is still small, but more people are becoming interested in robots."
(May. 8, 2006)
Robot Stores of Osaka
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