rock-bottom prices

日本のデフレの現状が紹介されています。rock-bottom pricesは「底値」、「最低の値段」のことですね。掘っていくとやがて岩盤に突き当たります。それ以上、掘りようがないということからのnamingでしょう。（UG）

Cheap is king in recession-mired Japan

It’s not just restaurants, of course. Lower prices and higher profits have spread throughout the service sector. The trend has brought back the humble barbershop, once swamped by the more expensive and fashionable hair stylist. A barber charging 1,000 yen for a no-frills haircut will have you out of the chair and be attending to another customer in 15 minutes, whereas a 3,500-yen shave-cut-shampoo-set job takes a good 50 minutes. The latter, on average, brings in 25,000 yen in the course of a 6-hour day; the former, 36,000 yen. Consider in addition that most barbershops are run by couples operating out of a corner of their homes. No rent, no staff. Typical annual earnings: 5.2 million yen – not big money, but still, a secure and reasonably comfortable livelihood.

Every neighborhood seems to have one – an inconspicuous little flower shop where you never see a customer. You can’t help feeling sorry for the owners. Don’t. They know what they’re doing, and are profiting handsomely. The secret, Shukan Post informs us, is funerals. “We have contracts with funeral parlors,” explains the owner of one rather forlorn-looking flower shop. Even small funerals need altar flowers, a floral tribute and so on. They order them from us. If we charge 15,000 yen, 80% of that is profit.”

Two “lost decades” have shaped today’s economy of small business, parsimonious consumption and rock-bottom prices. It’s been this way so long it feels normal. Last month a new government charged into office promising robust inflation and muscular growth. How will the pubs, barber shops and flower shops adapt?

http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi/view/cheap-is-king-in-recession-mired-japan