POP

Employees at the campus co-op store at Nihon Joshi Daigaku may work at Japan’s oldest private women’s university, but when it comes to making their special offer displays, their attitude is anything but old-fashioned. Their witty, super-honest pricing displays regularly have the Japanese Twitterverse in stitches.

Join us after the jump for six of the best!

In convenience stores and other chain stores, some point-of-sale advertising is delivered ready-made, but much of that bright signage you’ll see pointing you to special offers has to be made up and printed in the back room by a member of staff. This is a story of what happens when the person with those printing privileges lets it go to their head a little.

Our story begins with a poster in the store about a rather large-sounding order the boss has placed:

“2,000 boxes of ChocoBalls!!!
…Just FYI, last month, we only sold 70 boxes.

Boss: ‘You heard me, order 2,000 units. We sold all 4,000 of those crème caramels we ordered by mistake that one time, didn’t we?’
Underling: ‘But, but, that was just luck!’
Boss: ‘We order 2,000. I will not accept any answer other than YES.”

https://twitter.com/paaaruo/status/267783179652435969

 One week later…Conan is here, with a special offer for us!

“Thank you everybody! To celebrate the sale of all 2,000 ChocoBalls, these Nissin Raoh noodles are only 198 yen!
Conan: ‘I always believed in you, Boss.'”

Hurrah! The 2,000 ChocoBalls all sold! That’s pretty impressive in one week. But it looks like ChocoBalls and purin (crème caramel) aren’t the only silly orders this store’s put in.

“Stuff we should never have ordered.
Sometimes, when you try too hard, you screw up. But we have no regrets!
Life is short…just like these items’ shelf life.”

https://twitter.com/ponjyo_bot/status/427489560436568064

Next up, a soliloquy that takes an unexpected turn:

“A row of bikes falls down and I pick them up – the police question me.
I stand at my front door, looking for my keys – the police question me.
I don’t want to go outside any more.
For those hikikomori (total withdrawal from society) days, BALANCE UP cereal bars!”

A gloriously honest price poster for tea:

“We want to sell this tea!
(Not saying what you mean) is a bad habit we have here in Japan!
Say what you mean!…We want to sell this tea!”

https://twitter.com/ware_mitsu/status/346451840596058112

And last but not least, they’re back:

“It’s not about driving sales, increasing customers or even keeping the boss happy.
We just want you to enjoy this product. We mean it.
CHOCO BALLS, 55 yen [US $0.47]!”

And people say the Japanese language has no sarcasm.

Sources: Vicul, Twitter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Top image: Twitter (1, 2, 3), edited by RocketNews24
Featured image: Twitter