The Mystery of Kikiwai
Back in 2008, commanderteddog and I went to one of our favourite anime shops in Toronto: Kikiwai. Well, I don't know if you could call it a favourite of ours exactly but we did often enjoy our little trips to Chinatown to see what sort of character goods and other great imports we could find.
Well, when we got there, there was a note taped to the door dated at least 20 days prior to our visit, which meant the shop owners haven't been there in almost three weeks. We were confused to say the least and this is when the "mystery of Kikiwai" began for us.
See, even though that note was put up on the door, all of the merchandise remained untouched inside. I think even more shocking, for me at least, was how much the store had changed inside. The layout was a lot different and somehow more open... Thinking back on it, it's almost as if they had gotten rid of a lot of stock but I can't really say for sure, they might have just found a way to be more efficient with their floor space (that was always their biggest problem; it was always so cramped in there). The strange thing is that this person's blog entry states that the inside of the store looked fine -- I can only assume it looks exactly the same as it did when commanderteddog and I visited in December, and this entry was posted almost four months later. o_O
Of course, the first search result that comes up is from this other blog entry. They say the exact same thing that happened to us, happened to them, back when the sign was first posted. Apparently, some of the papers that were shoved under the door talk about a rodent infestation and how to treat it. I find this very peculiar, since I'm sure that Kikiwai couldn't possibly be the ONLY store in this corner of the mall to have a problem with rats. I guess the neighbouring stores were all empty but there were still a couple in that wing that were operating like normal from what I remember.
Also, their web site stopped operating in February, I think. It was a while after our visit, anyway, since I remember it still being operational like normal. (It's now a dead link.) One of the comments on this blog entry says that Kikiwai is now fully closed and doesn't exist anymore. I haven't been to that part of Chinatown in well over half a year so I can't confirm that but... if it's true, that's really sad. Kikiwai was a great place to go for anime and manga and other authentic merchandise. I wonder what REALLY happened to it?
Edit: One of the other commenters states that they talked to the owners and was told that they shut down and moved the shop to Hong Kong. o_O
Edit #2: I've seen some places where they've said that Kikiwai was sold to a new owner at some point (not sure when exactly, before it closed in Dec 2008 I think) and it seemed like they didn't even bother to really try to keep the place going. Seems more like a solid theory can be made here... The owners of Kikiwai wanted to move back to Hong Kong so they sold the store and the new owner barely even tried before it shut down. Seems the likeliest of situations.
Well, when we got there, there was a note taped to the door dated at least 20 days prior to our visit, which meant the shop owners haven't been there in almost three weeks. We were confused to say the least and this is when the "mystery of Kikiwai" began for us.
See, even though that note was put up on the door, all of the merchandise remained untouched inside. I think even more shocking, for me at least, was how much the store had changed inside. The layout was a lot different and somehow more open... Thinking back on it, it's almost as if they had gotten rid of a lot of stock but I can't really say for sure, they might have just found a way to be more efficient with their floor space (that was always their biggest problem; it was always so cramped in there). The strange thing is that this person's blog entry states that the inside of the store looked fine -- I can only assume it looks exactly the same as it did when commanderteddog and I visited in December, and this entry was posted almost four months later. o_O
Of course, the first search result that comes up is from this other blog entry. They say the exact same thing that happened to us, happened to them, back when the sign was first posted. Apparently, some of the papers that were shoved under the door talk about a rodent infestation and how to treat it. I find this very peculiar, since I'm sure that Kikiwai couldn't possibly be the ONLY store in this corner of the mall to have a problem with rats. I guess the neighbouring stores were all empty but there were still a couple in that wing that were operating like normal from what I remember.
Also, their web site stopped operating in February, I think. It was a while after our visit, anyway, since I remember it still being operational like normal. (It's now a dead link.) One of the comments on this blog entry says that Kikiwai is now fully closed and doesn't exist anymore. I haven't been to that part of Chinatown in well over half a year so I can't confirm that but... if it's true, that's really sad. Kikiwai was a great place to go for anime and manga and other authentic merchandise. I wonder what REALLY happened to it?
Edit: One of the other commenters states that they talked to the owners and was told that they shut down and moved the shop to Hong Kong. o_O
Edit #2: I've seen some places where they've said that Kikiwai was sold to a new owner at some point (not sure when exactly, before it closed in Dec 2008 I think) and it seemed like they didn't even bother to really try to keep the place going. Seems more like a solid theory can be made here... The owners of Kikiwai wanted to move back to Hong Kong so they sold the store and the new owner barely even tried before it shut down. Seems the likeliest of situations.