This is my little secret. I was once a Management Trainee at Chujitsu Retail Store back in 1987 for about 4 months. Those who were staying in Taman Segar, Cheras then would remember this Chujitsu Superstore with its bright orange sunflower logo occupying Cheras Plaza Building at the top of Taman Segar hill . Now next to Cheras Plaza is where the existing Cheras Leisure Mall.
Chujitsu Outlet in Taman Segar, Cheras was the first Chujitsu store outside Japan and it was established in Malaysia with a joint investment between Perlis Plantation berhad and Chujitsuya Corporation of Japan in 1986. The store was to be its flagship store in Malaysia and they were planning to open more outlets with the success of this Cheras outlet.
Chujitsu adopted everything Japanese from the Top Management to the retailing concept that end up not sustainable in Malaysia, especially during the great recession of 1987-88. During this period, people were very conscious of their spending and would not spend unnecessarily for their choices meat cut or fish in which Chujitsu had 2 meat and fish specialists from Japan for the fish and meat sections. Beside the Japanese GM, there were two other senior management from Chujitsuya Japan, the Operation Manager (Mr Furukawa) and Mr Ho ( my mentor). It was a wrong strategy considering that we end up with only the bargain hunters who were looking for discounted goods, and the kind who turned their backs on those fancy meat and fish cut. I know this concept will work fine with the current days Bangsar or Mont Kiara customers.
Beside choices cut of fish and meat, Chujitsu also engaged in weekly color concept whereby every week the apparel and clothings department would display their goods based on the color of the week. Just imagine if you don't like certain color, you would never want to be in the place during the week.
The background songs were all Japanese, mainly repeated numbers by Mayumi Itsuwa. I liked the songs but not when they were played every day for the next 120 days i was there. But now , I could appreciate the songs again and I still consider the songs very energetic and refreshing even after 25 year on. You can listen to Mayumi's video below.
As a management trainee, I was moved from one department to another on bi-weekly rotation basis to learn the basic trade of retail business. I was under tutelage of Mr Ho ( a chinese Japanese ) who acted and behaved like pure Japanese than Chinese. I understand that my position was to legalize his working visa and one way to do it was to train malaysian management trainee. I even went with him to the immigration department to verify that I worked and trained under Mr Ho's supervision.
Mr Ho didn't talk much on day to day basis but after my 3 months stint there, he sat down and reviewed with me his observation and comments with regard to my performance. True to his Japanese style, he said that as a trainee, I was not supposed to object or even provide opinion, but to follow the instruction given to me.This was new to me, and i was not ready for this kind of rigid environment. I decided to quit the next month.
When people asked me what was my memorable experience working there, there were quite few. In the toys department for instance, i got the chance to test out those remote control cars and everyday i would play with my remote control cars until one day i crashed a "ferrari" into a display rack and broke the car's front bumper. Quietly i glued the parts together and put it back on the rack. I didn't hear anybody making noise about this incident and i assumed everything was okay then. Second, when i got this opportunity to be the male model for Chjitsu Clothings promotion in sept 1987, for a first timer, it was not so bad afterall. But anyway, i will never try this again... ( It's me in the above advertisement) LOL!
Enjoy The song by Mayumi Itsuwa
Chujitsu Outlet in Taman Segar, Cheras was the first Chujitsu store outside Japan and it was established in Malaysia with a joint investment between Perlis Plantation berhad and Chujitsuya Corporation of Japan in 1986. The store was to be its flagship store in Malaysia and they were planning to open more outlets with the success of this Cheras outlet.
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| The Star sept 17 1987 |
Mr Ho didn't talk much on day to day basis but after my 3 months stint there, he sat down and reviewed with me his observation and comments with regard to my performance. True to his Japanese style, he said that as a trainee, I was not supposed to object or even provide opinion, but to follow the instruction given to me.This was new to me, and i was not ready for this kind of rigid environment. I decided to quit the next month.
When people asked me what was my memorable experience working there, there were quite few. In the toys department for instance, i got the chance to test out those remote control cars and everyday i would play with my remote control cars until one day i crashed a "ferrari" into a display rack and broke the car's front bumper. Quietly i glued the parts together and put it back on the rack. I didn't hear anybody making noise about this incident and i assumed everything was okay then. Second, when i got this opportunity to be the male model for Chjitsu Clothings promotion in sept 1987, for a first timer, it was not so bad afterall. But anyway, i will never try this again... ( It's me in the above advertisement) LOL!
Enjoy The song by Mayumi Itsuwa
