Nintendo’s Tokyo Store Isn’t Large Enough for its Fan Base

  • Weeks after opening, shop putting fans through hour-long waits
  • Company seems to have again underestimated its own popularity
An attendant arranges merchandise inside the Nintendo Tokyo store.Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
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Just before Christmas, a trip to Nintendo Co.’s flagship store in Tokyo would have required an hour’s wait just to get in and buy a plush Mario toy or a set of chopsticks bearing Luigi’s face.

Opened in November on the sixth floor of the renovated Shibuya Parco shopping mall, the constantly packed 300-square-meter showcase exhibits the appeal of Nintendo’s intellectual property contrasted against the conservatism that leads it to habitually underestimate the popularity of its products.