Hideout Prestige Over Visible Location

"By this time, the shop was operating centered around regular customers, so we weren’t too particular about having a prime location. I told Liz, “I prefer somewhere less conspicuous,” but she seemed a bit unsure about what I meant. “Why somewhere not conspicuous?” she wondered. “In Japan, there’s something called a ‘hideout style,’ where even prominent shops don’t have signs,” I explained, but she had a complex expression that suggested she understood yet didn’t."

"A café with the unlikely name “Sweet Surprise” had previously occupied the location, and it was hard to say it was in good condition when we saw it. However, since we would be taking over the lease contract the previous owner had signed, the rent was very attractive. It was a story from over 20 years ago, but the monthly rent of $485 was exceptionally low."

"A while before this announcement, an Apple representative inquired, “Will the store be open on January 9th?” After telling them we were on holiday, there was no further discussion, so I paid it no mind. But while watching TV that night, I couldn’t help but exclaim aloud. The presentation on that day in which Steve declared, “We are reinventing the phone,” featured a famous scene where he prank-called Starbucks asking for “1,000 lattes,” but there was this exchange as well. In the part introducing the iPhone’s messaging function, Steve demonstrated arranging dinner with Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Marketing. The place they discussed heading to was some Japanese restaurant in the suburbs of San Francisco. The unvarnished feeling upon seeing this scene was (Oh no). The recent inquiry was probably for this reason. Soon after, I heard that a certain store was buzzing with the “Steve special demand.” Since they imprinted “Thank you, Steve” on the receipts, they must have benefited considerably. (If I had known, I would have ended my vacation a day early…) I thought, but it was too late. It might be considered trivial, but such PR is crucial in intense competition. However, after some time, I also started to think like this: (Perhaps Steve didn’t want to reveal his real favorite place). The store tried not to pay too much attention to Steve and basically treated him as one of the regular customers. Steve also frequented the place probably because he liked this kind of treatment."