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.
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 :)
Good to see Candy Japan growing! I was a huge fan of the article about making an algorithm to pack the candy that showed up on HN [1]. After the article, I spent the next week or two looking into packing algorithms...
Box filling algos are rough. Working in ecomm for many years and trying to optimize costs, you spend a lot of time thinking about these kinds of problems. Apparently Amazon's answer is "F it" as they send massive boxes for tiny things frequently.
Slightly related, I worked in the sign printing industry for many years as well. There we also had fitting algorithms for ganging vector designs into runs for printing and cutting on large format printers. Those are a lot easier since it's 2D only, but they are still hard to get to perfection.
Have you considered offering a savory snacks crate, which doesn't consist of majority ramen?
Japan Crate has the Umai crate, which we (Tofugu) subscribed to for six months; majority of the contents were ramen :/ Was hoping for some chips and other goodies.
as someone operating a similar candy subscription service, we have been considering that offering (a savory snacks box) but the issue with shipping things like chips is that they have so much air in the packaging itself. this is a problem because let's say we ship in a small box, which for us usually contains around 1kg of candies, it can only contain at most four small bags of chips. for four bags of chips, taking shipping costs into consideration, it would cost close to 40 dollars, with more than half of the costs coming from shipping. would people really be willing to pay 40-50 a month for 4 bags of exotic chips?
Really happy to see the figures :), stories like this are highly inspirational to me. I am sure it's not going to take a long time to touch $1M in profits too. Keep up your hard work!
im actually quite surprised that the online candy market is still so small. candy in general is a multi billion dollar industry and with the benefit of the large hn community and its multiple first page posts, i expected them to have grew to a mega online mall for candies by now. its quite an interesting case, what could be the problem here?
There's something about candy that's very polarizing, at least in the USA. Candy used to be a very regional delicacy, every place had their specialities. At some point in the 20th century large candy companies addressed the mass markets and homogenized candy into less and less interesting treats. Now you really have to look for candy bars that are anything more than caramel, cheap chocolate and some nuts.
There's a whole book on this topic: "Candy Freak" by Steve Almond.
Italy, Japan and China still very much value a wide variety flavors and textures in their sweet confections. Where italy focuses on expertly maintaining tradition, the Asian countries seem to aim for extreme novelty. I like all of them.
Partly my reluctance to expand to having a warehouse of products. As it is now I know exactly how many of each product I need, so there is no need to store anything except only for the duration of shipping. It also means mostly shipping can be done in batches, instead of daily like a mega online mall would require.
There are a few things removed in your assumption:
1. Most prefer what they're familiar with. They grew up with the candies in their local stores so they might not be too eager to purchase foreign candies.
1. Candy is often a very impulsive purchase. You might grab a small bag or a bar at the checkout aisle. As a result, a monthly scheduled purchase might not be what people are looking for.
Japan has plenty of unique stuff not found anywhere else (not counting the inevitable Chinese knockoffs, which, tangentially, almost seems to be a law of physics; if something exists China will make a copy of it, but I digress.)
#IdeaForHN: Someone could start a service where people sign up for receiving random goods from Japan, from their preferred categories (e.g. video games, figurines, sex toys, etc.)
Great idea! Is there any interest in shipping instant Miso soup from Japan? Trader Joe's has discontinued their offering and I am looking for a replacement.
>"Health insurance
To me this was the biggest sticker shock, which I didn't mention at all in my old post as I wasn't paying it yet, as I was still tax resident in Finland. Now I'm currently paying 508 EUR or 569 USD for my health insurance here [for a family of 3]. That's not a typo or a yearly cost, that's what it costs every single month."
I am paying $50 for a single person per month for premium health insurance, no lines service, priority entry, private cliniques, private hospitals, accident insurance, over 200 diseases included, free checkups, worldwide coverage, up to 6 months in a hospital during the year covered, money payments for each accident/sickness that forced me to the hospital, emergency transportation, blood tests etc. on demand and so on, and so on. I love Europe.
UK here, sounds expensive to me. I mean, it's calculated as a percentage of your salary - so if you don't work at all, or earn below the taxable threshold, you never pay anything and still have full coverage. Earn loads of money = pay loads towards health insurance. As someone on a moderate salary, ~569USD/month sounds like a lot to me, but I can only assume that with his profits, it's not bad at all.
Germany, self-employed, single: I pay about 760 EUR/month for the statutory health insurance. This is the max, it can get cheaper if you make less revenue. Price increases about 2% every year. Can be fully deducted from taxes though. I think the system is kind of fair. I paid 80 EUR/month when I was a student.
In The Netherlands this would be quite expensive, though it depends a bit on what your insurance would cover. For example, my health insurance plan (covering just me, not a family of 3) costs around €110 / month ($130) but is a fairly basic plan and requires that I pay the first €300 myself (which is stupid if you ask me) per year, anything after that is covered.
You can get cheaper or more expensive plans depending on the amount of value you pay yourself (known as the "eigen risico" or "own risk"), but the cheapest I could find was around €80 / month.
It doesn't seem like an expensive premium for a family of 3 compared to what's on the federal exchange (what people ignorantly call Obamacare, as it were an insurance plan in and of itself) for the State of Florida.
Still the premium means relatively little, what matters is what kind of network coverage he/his family gets as well as the deductible and copay. As many have found especially with some of these fly by night insurance companies that initially popped up on the exchange in Florida and after two years are no longer in business, there is no point in claiming people are insured just because they are paying premiums, if the have relatively limited access to care and/or can't afford the deductible.
As a 32 y/o m with no preconditions my silver-ish plan in the US is $500/mo though I get reimbursed some of that by my employer (while the ACA is in place at least).
Germany: For employees in the national health insurance 7.6 % of your gross salary capped at currently 4350,- Euro per month and the employer has to pay the same again.
[+] [-] smaili|8 years ago|reply
> Most of this money has been spent on product and shipping, meaning I haven't made anywhere close to a million dollars in profit with this.
[+] [-] lsaferite|8 years ago|reply
> But the great thing is, I've been able to live off of the sales.
So, he's at least been able to live off the profit, which is great.
[+] [-] tunnuz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johanm1|8 years ago|reply
Curious to know - do you need any type of FDA or import-export license to ship things in US from a foreign country?
[+] [-] metalliqaz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bemmu|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RepressedEmu|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Raphmedia|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdavis703|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hkmurakami|8 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] Eridrus|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corobo|8 years ago|reply
Not all geeky things are directly tech related, some of us are just geeks through and through :)
[+] [-] _pmf_|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smegel|8 years ago|reply
He makes items available you simply would not be able to easily obtain otherwise.
[+] [-] syntaxing|8 years ago|reply
[1]https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes/algorithmic-fit...
[+] [-] lsaferite|8 years ago|reply
Slightly related, I worked in the sign printing industry for many years as well. There we also had fitting algorithms for ganging vector designs into runs for printing and cutting on large format printers. Those are a lot easier since it's 2D only, but they are still hard to get to perfection.
[+] [-] traviswingo|8 years ago|reply
As a side note, nearly half this thread is talking about health insurance...really?
[+] [-] _mb|8 years ago|reply
I found a minor bug, if you go to https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes/ (note the slash at the end), then the server gives 500. Perhaps just redirect the user to https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes for a better UX.
[+] [-] i_am_viet|8 years ago|reply
Japan Crate has the Umai crate, which we (Tofugu) subscribed to for six months; majority of the contents were ramen :/ Was hoping for some chips and other goodies.
[+] [-] gotrecruit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevekemp|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] texteller|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ythn|8 years ago|reply
That's insane. That's roughly $10 worth of "snacks" per day.
[+] [-] jaequery|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crispyambulance|8 years ago|reply
There's a whole book on this topic: "Candy Freak" by Steve Almond.
Italy, Japan and China still very much value a wide variety flavors and textures in their sweet confections. Where italy focuses on expertly maintaining tradition, the Asian countries seem to aim for extreme novelty. I like all of them.
[+] [-] bemmu|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sushid|8 years ago|reply
1. Most prefer what they're familiar with. They grew up with the candies in their local stores so they might not be too eager to purchase foreign candies.
1. Candy is often a very impulsive purchase. You might grab a small bag or a bar at the checkout aisle. As a result, a monthly scheduled purchase might not be what people are looking for.
[+] [-] zacharycohn|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bemmu|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] myth_drannon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Razengan|8 years ago|reply
#IdeaForHN: Someone could start a service where people sign up for receiving random goods from Japan, from their preferred categories (e.g. video games, figurines, sex toys, etc.)
[+] [-] malux85|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoeDaDude|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] aphextron|8 years ago|reply
Sounds like a bargain
[+] [-] BartSaM|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gambiting|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] superhans2|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jv22222|8 years ago|reply
Luckily, my employer picks up half of that tab.
Even with that amount of expense we still have a $2000 deductible each!
[+] [-] YorickPeterse|8 years ago|reply
You can get cheaper or more expensive plans depending on the amount of value you pay yourself (known as the "eigen risico" or "own risk"), but the cheapest I could find was around €80 / month.
[+] [-] will_brown|8 years ago|reply
Still the premium means relatively little, what matters is what kind of network coverage he/his family gets as well as the deductible and copay. As many have found especially with some of these fly by night insurance companies that initially popped up on the exchange in Florida and after two years are no longer in business, there is no point in claiming people are insured just because they are paying premiums, if the have relatively limited access to care and/or can't afford the deductible.
[+] [-] SeoxyS|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] okreallywtf|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danbruc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kgwgk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrischen|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grillwork|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adbachman|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pryelluw|8 years ago|reply