After a social media apology that he posted, a Japanese F&B store owner received floods of new customers.
Junya Hashimoto is the owner and operator of Taiyaki no Bunfukuya, located in the Gyoda City of Saitama Prefecture. His shop sells taiyaki, which is a traditional pastry usually filled with red bean paste and is in the shape of a fish.
Soranews reported that the 45-year-old Hashimoto had very little business during the hotter seasons of the year. This is because taiyaki are best enjoyed during winter.
However, because of the tight restrictions, Taiyaki no Bunfukuya sales dropped by as much as 70%!
Hashimoto then decided it was finally time to increase the prices of his Taiyaki. However, he contemplated on it over and over and felt guilty. Hence, he later added more red bean filling as compensation.
This did not solve his problem at all since he started losing even more money by adding the extra filling. His shop was on a path to bankruptcy. Then he finally made up his mind to reduce the filling.
Hashimoto felt so guilty about this decision that he decided to share it with the world via Twitter.
Here is his tweet about a handwritten sign he placed outside his store. It reads:
“Honestly speaking, I used to put a lot of anko (red bean paste) inside, but there was no profit from it. I will reduce the amount of anko because the store is about to go broke. Please forgive me.”
行田のたいやき屋で御座います。みんな、すまねえ！！
どうか、リツイートにチカラをかしてください(>_<) pic.twitter.com/oNEYqrsU7L— たいやきの分福屋（行田市） (@tenjingouitsu) August 24, 2021
This sincere apology for forgiveness touched the netizens’ hearts. His tweet has received more than 27,400 retweets and 65.7k likes from Aug 24.
Users respected his honesty and stated that his Taiyaki was still delicious, regardless of the smaller filling. Many promised to visit his store to taste it firsthand.
Various news outlets caught the viral tweet landing Hashimoto’s shop in a news segment, and many customers queued outside the shop.
We hope Hashimoto’s shop gets more customers in the future and can continue serving his tasty taiyaki.
Also read about Pepsi Flavors You Can Only Buy In Japan