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Cosafé – Maid Cafe: Beta
Today is the official opening of Singapore’s first cosplay cafe although Cosafé first opened its doors five days ago. I think I am the only goondu who heeded the cafe’s request not to put up pictures of their maids at their cafe until opening day. Well, here’s the sights on the evening of the soft launch.
Cosafé – Maid Cafe opened on 12 Dec 2006
As I waited for the lights to turn green at the cross-junction at Raffles City-CHIJMES-Raffles Hotel, I can already see 小妹妹s prancing around in maid costumes at the cafe just across the road. ~WOO HOO~
The place was packed to the brim on opening type. Besides the usual otakus (some who’re obviously closeted), there were curious tourists (I assume the ang mohs are tourists) too. If not for some friends of a friend who’d already gotten a place, my friend and I would have to wait.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I’d visited three maid cafes in Akihabara this summer and have watched enough J-dramas (Akihabara@DEEP, Maid in Akihabara, Densha Otoko) that featured maid cafes so I had my expectations.
Of course, for a maid (meido) cafe, the very basic expectation would be the greeting “KAERINASAI, GOSHUJIN-SAMA!” (帰りなさい、ご主人様！/Welcome Back, Master!) in the tair anime voice. All that I heard (barely) was “IRASSHAIMASE”. WTF? If I’d wanted an IRASSHAIMASE I would have gone to a third-rate Japanese conveyor belt sushi restaurant. . .
Busy maids running around like headless chickens
The operations was pretty helter-skelter on the opening night. The kitchen couldn’t keep up with the orders and many of the customers waited a long time for their drinks, and even longer for their food. Even if it’s not a maid cafe, one would expect attentive wait staff for any decent food & beverage outlet. But most of the maids milling around the counter inside the cafe. They’re either waiting for their orders, or are too shy to interact with the customers.
The price of the food is comparable to the rest of the F&B outlet at CHIJMES (i.e. expensive). If not for the fact that there’s a 40% discount off the bill that evening, many of the customers (the students, young working adults) wouldn’t be able to afford to hang out at the cafe on a regular basis.
I didn’t get to try their food that night, seeing the number of tables that’d waited for their orders for more than 40mins. And I canceled the order for my coffee because I’d waited more than an hour for it. According to the management, there’s only one person available to prepare the beverages – and it was none other than Ferlyn (witch_cat), the girl who’d started the cafe idea with her cosplay mate, Julia.
One of the prettier maids
Unauthorised Photo-taking are usually forbidden at maid cafe in Japan, as a matter of policy to protect the privacy of the working staff and also the customers who frequent the place (yes, there’s still some stigma associated with Otaku culture in Japan. “Otaku” is not a badge of pride in the Land of the Rising Sun). I asked one of the maids if we could take pictures, and she politely mentioned that we could come back on their official opening to take their pix. But seeing that they’re too busy to enforce the policy, I discretely took some photos. As did others with their professional looking cameras. [According to Ferlyn's post on Sgcafe, "We do not allow photos taken both even and after our official opening. However, Unlike the Japanese maid cafes, we do take photos only with tourist." You can take pictures of the maids if you can show proof that you are not a Singapore citizen or permanent resident and have a valid social visit visa.]
Lensmen
You can check out more pictures of maids on opening night at Tsubaki’s blog, who’d sent one of his spies to the cafe. Some of the maids working at Cosafé maintain blogs: roseatte, StRaWbErRiEx, kelly, and sparkling-diamonds. Later that evening, Julia came over to our table and apologised for the SNAFUs. Apparently many of the maids had not received enough training and was thrown to the deep end of the pool on opening night.
Julia
I’d wanted to go down today for the official opening if not for the rain. Yesterday at EOY, Cosafé put up a song and dance on stage. I missed the show as I was late. TedFox managed to capture the moment on video:
Jingle Belle Rock by Cosafé
Leaves much to be desired…
PLAYING THE GAME
Talking to people and reading comments of those who’d visited Cosafé, many were not impressed. Some are skeptical of the survivability of Cosafé. Their doubts are not unfounded because some of them wondered if those who’re running the business know what they’ve gotten into. It appears they’re newbies in the F&B business, and are quite clueless about Otaku (Moé) culture. There’s a concern that after the novelty wears off and if they’re not able to deliver a satisfactory product, the cafe will go down the route of A&W – selling Nasi Lemak together with root beer float before becoming an article of history.
I think Cosafé can still run a viable business if they capitalise on their advantage: location, and being the first-mover. If they’re able to master the ropes fast enough, they should be able to hack it. They’ve settled at a good location. In the F&B and hospitality business, location is critical success factor. CHIJMES also fit in well with the theme of cosplay (the Euro architecture). And they’re first in the business, so there’s no direct competition to distract them (yet – The V Tea Room might be a close fight for an authentic Victorian maid experience but this English tea room simulacrum is in a league of its own – the cosplay cafe appeal to a different crowd). They don’t have to worry about the “know thy enemy” part, but they’ve got to quickly get up to speed on the “know thyself” bit. It’s arguable that there’s downsides to these advantages – the good location would translate to expensive rent (more than S$7,000 per month for that corner unit, according to the article “My Boss is 16“; TNP, 15th December 2006, Page 10-11). And the lack of competition may lull the proprietors into complacency.
It should be clear that “maid cafes” are not simply another F&B business, it’s an entertainment business. The operations of a cosplay cafe is more like running Crazy Horse rather than Cafe Cartel. People don’t go to cosplay cafes to feed the hunger in the belly. Rather, they’re there to slake the thirst of their eyes and minds. If people are gonna pay S$5 for their coffee, they’d rather go Starbucks where they can get excellent coffee. But they’re willing to pay S$5 (not inclusive of GST) for so-so coffee at a maid cafe because they want the entertainment. It’s not about selling food, but putting on a show. The F&B for a maid cafe is just like the candy in a candy toy shokugan set.
The cosplay cafe is a mod of the F&B business. The F&B part management (the game engine) is fundamental for the entertainment bit to work. And it’s the entertainment – the ’show’ layer – that makes the difference. To make the mod, they’ve got to grasp the basics of the game engine. To survive on the F&B scene, they’ve got to learn to keep overheads low. Rent and labour cost are the usual culprits that chip away at the bottom line. They could save on food cost by knowing what to include on their menu. The inventory is perishable, and having a comprehensive menu would mean higher inventory cost. Besides, the size of the kitchen and the skill of the kitchen staff is another limitation on food production. The menu can be kept simple. And this can influence the pricing.
Labour cost can be a killer but they cannot scrimp on labour if they’re going to attract the right kind of people for a cosplay cafe. The quality of the staff is the centre of gravity for any maid cafe operations. The people on the frontline make the difference between any ordinary cafe and a cosplay cafe. A cosplay cafe doesn’t mean a cafe with wait staff attired in fancy dress – it’s about people working the floor getting into character and putting up a show. They can’t just pluck any one off the streets and turn them into cosplayers. Even normal wait staff have to be adequately trained before they can be sent to the frontlines, much less service staff who are expected to be performers. In fact, the management of operations is more like running a stage production – you direct a cast, not a staff. And everyone has to know that they’re on show, from the front end to the backstage. Its hard to find people with passion for the profession. And it’s grueling to work in the F&B industry. But money can be a sweetener to attract and retain the right talents for the job.
There’s also the ambiance and the atmospherics that adds to customer experience – from background music to the crowd that frequents the place. Many of the cosplay cafes survive on regular customers – and people go back to the cafe because they’ve become like the oasis for Otaku community. The setting of price will have an impact on the ‘crowd control’ – the type of people that will visit the cafe. If the quality of product is good, people wouldn’t mind paying the price but I’m not sure if there’s enough financially independent Otakus (those who’re earning enough to splurge on their hobbies) to fill the customer base, but the current prices on the menu would have priced most students out of the market – and you won’t be able to expect regular customers from this market segment. The folksong cafe (民歌餐厅) is a possible model for emulation. [ I think bubble tea goes well with the cosplaying crowd (that are mostly teens and post-teens).]
And finally, the trade dress is as important as the service quality especially if you’re going after the wallets of the Otakus. Trade dress is simply is the ’skin’ – the look and feel of the product. And Otaku culture is predicated by eye candies and highly imaginative visuals – and those running a cosplay cafe have to be up to mark to attract and hold their customers’ fickle attention span. All things being equal, the game with better graphics will sell better. This is not limited to the costume that the performers wear – it includes logo, menu design (how you name the items), furnishing, decor and quality of the carriers, cutlery, crockery, napkins, coasters etc. Sloppy trade-dress such as photocopied/worn menus and generic props just won’t cut it. Having a good trade dress will have a direct impact on the merchandising. The collectible is an intrinsic aspect of Otaku-dom and it would be foolish not to tap into that – the cosplay cafes in Japan sold badges, t-shirts, mugs and other collectible (souvenir) items of their cafe. Some even had figurines of the cosplayers or mascots of their cafe.
MOÉ (BUDDING) ENTREPRENEURS
The Government will probably want to make poster girls out of Julia and Ferlyn should their business take off. Even if it doesn’t, they’d still be applauded for their risk-taking spirit following the Government’s mantra of encouraging entrepreneurship. The girls are blessed that they’ve got supportive venture capitalists who’re willing to put their money into their daughters’ passion. And I hope that the girls can seize this opportunity to learn as much as they can. It will be a worthwhile learning experience that the classrooms cannot teach – the awful reality of making money and reconciling passion with business interests, and also dealing with friendship and business partnership. Reality isn’t so cutesy. It’s a god eat god world.
