Seems HN users are familiar and even enthusiastic with Candy Japan. I'm not sure I understand, though. It's just a dude offering intermediary shipping, right? Am I missing some interesting tech stuff here?
The service is simple, no fancy tech (it's just a bunch of Python). Possibly the initial appeal was that random-boxes-of-surprises services were rare, and my openness with the numbers.
Here's what's fun about it - it's literally just a random box of interesting candy that shows up at the door like a little surprise. I love little surprises. Shit, I love when I order something on Amazon, even if it's boring, and getting the package delivered. This is 100x more exciting than that!
Kudos to you, Bemmu, this is a very fun idea, and I hope you continue to see success from it.
You should expand the service (or start a new one) into other categories of physical goods: manga, novels, video games, figurines and other merchandise not found anywhere else outside of Japan.
Let subscribers pick their preferred categories and allow them to choose the amount of money they want to pay each month + shipping costs,
then you go out and buy random things from one or more of those categories (in order of user preference), and keep a record of which items you sent to each customer, to avoid duplicates.
Social fluff: Let users post on-site reviews of the items they receive from you.
Ideal outcome: People discover the uniqueness of Japan, share it with their friends and other users, and you help spread some joy and pocket the change.
Japanese sweets, especially chocolate, taste like they have less sugar to me. They might be the same, but you could be better off with them than others.
It's already a combination of sweet and savory snacks.
Personally, what I don't like are the kits where you have to mix things with little cups of water and such. They're never satisfying, and I think they include too many of them.
> You should expand the service (or start a new one) into other categories of physical goods: manga, novels, video games, figurines and other merchandise not found anywhere else outside of Japan.
Of course there would already be other regular shopping/shipping services. What I was suggesting was for Candy Japan to pick and curate the items themselves, without the subscribers knowing what they’ll get. So it would be extending the theme of receiving random surprises from Japan.
What is exciting for me is that you documented the whole process from the start and, notably, that you actually built it, it didn't stay just an idea. I find that inspiring.
He has been consistently posting in-depth articles about his code base and business for years. People like him and his wacky business the same way we like Levels.
Levels is a digital nomad who has consistently posted in-depth articles about his businesses and codebases for years. People like him and his travel lifestyle the same way we like Patrick.
Patrick has been consistently posting in-depth articles about his code base and business for years. People like him and his rational advice the same way we like the Candy Japan guy.
He has been consistently posting in-depth articles about his code base and business for years. People like him and his wacky business the same way we like Levels.
I think there's some curation by the business operator. It's pretty unlikely that overseas residents have a good grasp of the current market offerings.
Also I think it's an interesting case study of the growth and evolution of a business that started very, very small, that's been documented closely by the operator. He even wrote about dealing with cc fraud.
No interesting tech stuff, but it's not just shipping, it's also curation. I subscribed to a similar service for over a year (Japan Crate) and the fact that I didn't have to go find these items myself is most of the point.
Personally I enjoy seeing a candyjapan link because it doesn't fluff on the details. The write ups don't hide numbers and other information just for the sake of hiding them. On top of that the write-ups are interesting
Not all geeky things are directly tech related, some of us are just geeks through and through :)
