Tarumi Shopping Street Promotion Association was chosen as "Top 30 Rising Shopping District" from all Japan's Shopping Streets by The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency.
In Hyogo, only this association was chosen as "Young・Woman" of Japan.
There was an award ceremony at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industryon on the 23rd of March, 2017
| Location | Kanda-cho・Kugano-cho,Tarumi-ku,Kobe-City,Hyogo |
|---|---|
| Population | Population: Approx. 220,000(Tarumi-ku,Kobe-City) |
| TEL/FAX | TEL: +81-78-707-4650/FAX:+81-78-707-4659 |
| Website | https://www.tarumi.ne.jp/ |
| Number of membership | 98 employees |
| Number of Stores | 98 shops (29 retails, 33 restaurants, 13 services, 5 finances, 3 real estates, 10 medical services, and 5 others) |
| Type of Shopping District | Community style shopping street |
| Main customer segment | Housewives, elderly / 50’s, 60’s |
The history of Tarumi Shopping Street began with Tarumi Renbai market after the war. Five shopping street were born along the Ginza-dori around 1955, which was extended from the east exit of JR Tarumi Sta. toward the north, and it was lively with a lot of visitors. When large style shopping malls were opened near shopping street after 1989, cus-tomer numbers started to decrease. Tarumi Shopping Street Promotion Association was established by numerous shopping street in the same area in 1999.
There are changes such as decreasing population, decreasing birthrate and aging population, and increasing in numbers of restaurant and hospital. However, shopping street continuous to have visitors mainly the commuters to the nearby sta. They get atten-tion for holding of various events, such as Ikanago (sand lance) festival and town seminar, as well as the creating of the catch phrase “Nanka, meccha (“like, totally”)”
Tarumi Shopping Street is located in an immediate northern part of the station, which 40,000 commuters use daily. The location is excellent for a lot of commut-ers. However, there are large style shops, and also due to decreasing population, decreasing birthrate and aging population, the number of empty lots were increasing in the nearby market. The shopping street needed projects which concerned their next ten years. Project planning and operation were executed within the organization. However, main parts were controlled by limited individuals, such as chief director and vice chief director. Since the rest of the union members were not participating, it was necessary to educate young. In order to keep the liveliness continuously, they set goals to increase charming shops. They aim to make the shopping street lively, make community lively, and make people want to live in this town. They discussed the mid-term business vision with current status and assignment in 2015 and shared the actions to take from now on.
In order to keep the livelihood, they thought it was necessary to hire youth and female who will carry the next generation. Other than goods sales, member business vary due to the increase shops in the service indus-try, such as restaurants. This condition made it difficult for members to plan and operate by gathering at the same time. To solve the problems, shopping street started Committee for each business and decided to uti-lize IT for the operation. For example, town seminar committee was set up for the execution of town seminar, and free groupware was used to share information with the committee. Groupware is a software which has the aim to share schedule, tasks and communication among the organizations. By utilizing the groupware, the com-munication was recorded. The progress management of multiple projects taking place simultaneously was also precisely managed on the net. It became possible to share information in details among the committee mem-bers, and they can actually minimize the number of meeting frequency. It minimizes the time constrains, and consequently youth and female members can responsi-bly be related to project planning and operation.
Currently, youth and female members are appointed as chairman, vice chairman, committee members of each committee. Union members other than chairman is also actively participating the business operation. With the participation of youth and female, a change in the fully worked-out layout of the event location, where visitors will spend time to stay longer, the creation of poster by young artists, and young owners’ event participation can be found. They successfully got attention of the younger visitors in addition to the conventional housewives and elderly visitors. IT committee was started to operate homepage, and they executed the computerization and adjustment of the homepage to smartphones, implementation of digital coupons, and information release of event and shopping street by using SNS. Sales and event information was delivered to the customers. It not only enhanced the convenience but also progressed the advertising to the other community residents.
Project management know-how is shared in the groupware TO DO list, and project progress can be checked by status indicator (“in progress” etc.). Data is uploaded in common folder. They execute business project effectively by communicating new and old generations. It increased the success feeling of business enforcement and bonded feeling among the members, while reinforced the tie between shopping street union members. Workload was shared by the committee style. It solved the jammed conditions which burdened particular members of the union members. On the groupware, contents and schedules are discussed and previous data is recorded precisely. They utilize these data and evaluate the points to be improved, which they can refer to during the next fiscal year for business operation. Since there is a possibility that communication on the net may not be sufficient, they actively use comment column in order to clarify the communication.
At shopping street, chairman, vice chairman, committee members of each committee are selected by each project at the beginning of each fiscal year. They make an annual schedule, and each committee will follow and operate. Firstly, they review the information on groupware, find out the improvement point, and make TO DO list with execution items which help to operate smoothly. Each year the operation scheme is getting more refined, and they can grasp the progress of the projects. For the groupware operation and decision of mid-term business vision, they receive advice from the consultants. They have established a system to receive and get direction easily for the future improvement. They utilize subsidy from prefecture and city. For the further improvement, they are planning to charge for the dues of each shop starting from the fiscal year 2017.
As the shopping street business varies, it is getting more difficult for all project members to participate at the same time. To sustain the shopping street activities, it is necessary to operate the projects by young and female staffs, who has limited time and manpower. By implementing groupware, they successfully economize the workforce and make teamwork effective. It made it easier participation for both young and female members.
Currently, they are operating by using free part of groupware only, but the functionality is limited. Business owners were unfamiliar with the system, and it took time until they got used to it. In addition to the mistakes caused by Inexperience, checking method is different depending on the uses. It causes problem for the urgent matter. They have a rule to hit “Like” button to indicate already read. There are problems with this system. For example, it is hard to recognize whether they have read but just forgot to press “Like” button. Also, it is hard sometimes to find uploaded contents. They have to think how to use groupware more effectively.
Tarumi Shopping Street Promotion Association, director Kobe Taruimi Ikanago (sand lance) Festival Committee, Chairman Koudai Morita
Tarumi Shopping Street Promotion Association Kobe Taruimi Ikanago (sand lance) Festival Committee, Vice Chairman Naomi Okamoto
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