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Yoghurt delivery women combatting loneliness in Japan
- alephnerd 7mo agoThis seems to be a submarine article - all the images and quotes seem to be directly sourced from Yakult Honsha's strategic comms department. Edit: yep, appears Yakult has just kicked off an ad campaign putting Yakult Ladies front and center [0] [0] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u8HNY7Ta4dA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u8HNY7Ta4dA
- haunter 7mo agoThis is an ad
- nephihaha 7mo agoFrom the BBC no less. We were just discussing how uncommercial they are.
- cubefox 7mo agoI thought the BBC was state funded and didn't have to rely on undisclosed sponsorships.
- MagicMoonlight 7mo agoThey probably aren’t even getting paid for it, they’re just falling for shill posts for free.
- cubefox 7mo agoI'm not sure which would be worse.
- rounce 7mo agoThe BBC is not state funded, it's a public broadcaster primarily funded by the general public, via the (admittedly outdated) TV licence fee system. Although the media output for the UK is non-commercial, it does have commercial operations and interactions though and they are mostly centred around the content produced for overseas consumption. As this post is on the .com domain where the international content exists (and which runs ads), I presume it is part of the paid content side of things.
- wizzwizz4 7mo agoCorrect. The .co.uk version has this disclaimer: > This website is produced by BBC Global News Ltd, a commercial company that is part of BBC Studios, owned by the BBC (and just the BBC). No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. The money we make from it is re-invested to help fund the BBC’s international journalism.
- nephihaha 7mo agoThe BBC is a state broadcaster which claims to be autonomous, but that doesn't apply when it comes to foreign policy or the royal family.
- ViktorRay 7mo agoThis isn’t true. The content of the BBC is independent of the UK government. Even for the royal family and for foreign policy. I am not British so I could be wrong however. If you have evidence that the BBC lacks autonomy when it comes to foreign policy or to the royal family please share it with the rest of us.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- _delirium 7mo agoThe article didn't answer my main question, which is how the economics work. How does it add up to have high-touch home delivery of $5 yogurt packages?
- trollbridge 7mo agoIt's very effective if you have just a few of these, but are able to get lots of press from doing so that causes many other consumers to go and buy yourself through normal grocery outlets.
- MagicMoonlight 7mo agoThey don’t have just a few, they have 81,000 people doing it.
- VLM 7mo ago400 yen for a ten pack is more like $2.50 than $5 Typical markup in the USA is 100% from wholesaler to retail. Running brick and mortar is very expensive. So if Walgreens were selling this, the wholesale price would be $1.25. I think it reasonable to expect the Yakult Ladies are pulling in the same $1.25 per package that walgreens gets. The key, I think, is "Most of them are self-employed". Its a gig economy idea. You have to eat. If you're walking home from the store anyway (or kids school or on the way home from work or whatever), you may as well deliver packages for $1.25 each on the way home. You're walking home anyway, you may as well make free money on the walk.
- lysace 7mo ago
- tokyobreakfast 7mo agoJapanese have lactose intolerance, almost universally. They don't eat yogurt or dairy in general.
- wingerlang 7mo agoSo does Thailand but we also have Yakult ladies here, they just sell the drinks though.
- gramie 7mo agoThe annual consumption of ice cream in Japan was 6.7 litres per person in 2021 (compared to 10 litres/person in Canada and 20 litres/person in the U.S.). For all dairy, Japanese people each ate 94 kg in 2022. They eat less dairy, but hardly none. I have heard people say that a scoop of ice cream or a glass of milk each day is not a problem, but more can be. Intolerance also seems to increase with age, so younger people can consume more dairy. A 1975 study in Japan puts intolerance (unable to drink 200ml of milk comfortably) at 19% of the population. I would suspect that massive exposure over the past 50 years has lowered that percentage significantly.
- tokai 7mo agoHow come Yakult is a nearly 100 years old Japanese company? Most yogurt cultures reduces lactose content of the milk base during fermentation. Some cultures like the one Yakult uses supports increased lactose digestion in humans. At the same time lactose intolerance is not binary but a spectrum.
- School-Cotton 7mo agoThe first line is true, the second line is false. Lactose intolerance is not absolute.
- socalgal2 7mo agoA video on how it’s possible for lactose intolerant peoples to still eat lots of dairy. Case in video: Chinese and milk tea https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=At_WjGosTNM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=At_WjGosTNM
- Aaargh20318 7mo agoEvery time I read an article about people trying to solve the 'loneliness epidemic' I can't help but wonder if we're not trying to solve the wrong problem. Maybe the solution should not be sought in trying to increase social connections but in eliminating our need for social contact. This dependence on other humans has always felt like a flaw to me. Note that I'm not saying that human contact is bad, just that our pathological dependency on it is.
- onlyrealcuzzo 7mo agoThen, like, what's the point of even being a human instead of a robot?
- MattGaiser 7mo agoYou would be free to decide, instead of having it being biologically required that you socialize.
- Aaargh20318 7mo agoTo learn, to create, to grow? None of these things necessarily involve other humans.
- ValentineC 7mo agoWe used to have Yakult Ladies in Singapore too — I remember my parents buying from them to please their kids (me) decades ago. Surprisingly enough, I just looked the scheme up for this comment, and it's still active: - https://yakult.com.sg/yakult-lady-agent/ https://yakult.com.sg/yakult-lady-agent/ - https://sg.news.yahoo.com/memory-makers-singapores-first-yakult-lady-still-delivers-door-to-door-042843434.html https://sg.news.yahoo.com/memory-makers-singapores-first-yak... The Yahoo article could help explain some of the economics behind it.
- ohghiZai 7mo agoI still see them going door to door these days!
- ekianjo 7mo agoIs this a PR piece, with product placement clearly front and center?
- jokoon 7mo agoEnglish is not my main language but this title confuses me
- xandrius 7mo agoYoghurt delivery women is the subject of the sentence and it's about women who deliver yoghurts.
- userbinator 7mo ago...and yoghurt is not an euphemism in this case, as much as the mentions of loneliness and Japan would make it seem like that.
- qingcharles 7mo agoYakult is a Japanese company? I always assumed from the name it came from mainland Europe somewhere. They did a Häagen-Dazs on me. Especially as the Japanese often come up with Western names like this that aren't even spellable in kana.
- troymc 7mo agoThe plaid trim on the official uniform definitely gives it a Scottish aesthetic.
- pan69 7mo ago> Yakult (ヤクルト, Yakuruto) is a Japanese sweetened probiotic milk beverage fermented with the bacteria strain Lacticaseibacillus casei Shirota. It is sold by Yakult Honsha based in Tokyo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakult
- layer8 7mo agoYou should have also quoted the next sentence: The name "Yakult" was coined from jahurto, an Esperanto word meaning "yogurt".
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- chuckadams 7mo agoI wonder how many suburban housewives in the 60's combated loneliness through TupperWare® Parties?
- jadbox 7mo agoAnd the Avon cream products in the 90s!
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- dddw 7mo agoI also remember Cabouchon jewelry in this era
- WalterGR 7mo agoThey existed well into the 80s in rural Missouri.
- whstl 7mo agoI heard about those from parents/grandparents and it was interesting in contrast to MLM meetings I had people trying to con me into participating. I fell for one invite once and they are pure sleaze.
- no_time 7mo agoHow neat. I'd buy some Actimel too if a sharply dressed lady would show up at my door instead of a suicidal looking grocery delivery guy who carves the local word for "tip" in the elevator every time he doesn't get any.
- zabzonk 7mo agoWell, I'd go for a sharply dressed lady too, but ... what I get is very cheerful Tesco drivers in hiviz, who unpack my groceries and stash the chilled stuff in my fridge. It's a great (UK) service, and they quite often ask if they can do anything else for me (I'm bed-bound) like make a cup of tea. Cannot recommend them highly enough.
- fwipsy 7mo agoThis is sweet. I am glad even if they are not sharply dressed ladies they still take the time to help you.
- sincarne 7mo agoI hadn’t thought about it before, but you’re right: the grocery delivery folks in the UK were always quite cheerful! We used Ocado mostly, and their drivers were always happy for a chat while unloading.
- vuln 7mo ago[flagged]
- s1artibartfast 7mo agoIt is very easy, actually
- huddert 7mo ago[flagged]
- bananaflag 7mo agoCan't you just buy it from the grocery store?
- pipeline_peak 7mo ago“The yoghurt delivery women combatting loneliness in Minnesota” HN’s interest in this article is so “thing vs Japanese thing”
- bigstrat2003 7mo agoThat trope only applies if the non-Japanese version of the thing exists. Which, if you live in the US, it doesn't. I would be just as interested in an article about Minnesota yogurt delivery women, but they don't exist, so...
- boomboomsubban 7mo agoMinnesota did have home ice cream and other frozen food delivery until Schwan's finally shut down a few years ago. Usually men, but they did tend to be chatty from my experience. So there is a US equivalent, but it would have been interesting to read about them too.
- Barrin92 7mo ago>That trope only applies if the non-Japanese version of the thing exists It does. These kind of small scale food delivery services exist both in charitable and commercial form across North America and Europe. I know several "Meals on Wheels" workers who are basically half-timing as social service workers. This is the stereotypical weekly "bucolic Japanese neighborhood social life" story that does actually exist in every place.
- paganel 7mo agoSometimes news like this is upvoted, because it involves Japan, towards each a lot of Western techies have an unhealthy obsession on, but the moment when those techies are advised to not use the self-service thing at the super-market they start going bananas.
- ronnier 7mo agoI also find it odd that there’s daily top ranked Japan related articles on HN.
- haunter 7mo agoHN is the breeding ground of the Thing Japan meme https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thing-japan https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thing-japan
- AdrianB1 7mo agoJapan is a very interesting country for Western people (US and Canada, Western Europe) because it is by far the most developed country that is not Western. In this regard, it is unique and intriguing.
- davkan 7mo agoYes, it seems to me like one of the few places you can go to get a completely fish out water experience while also not feeling the wealth disparity. I’m not well travelled but, Canada just feels like home of course, and Italy didn’t feel strange in the slightest. Japan was like being transported to a different world. Guatemala was as well but, getting picked up by a bodyguard at the airport and driving past slums on the way to a gated community of mansions left a sour taste that still lingers.
- fidicen 7mo agoWith the automation of some customer service labor in japan, maybe this shows people value at least a bit of customer service interaction as a customer
- petterroea 7mo agoI think most feedback I've seen regarding automation of customer service labour has been along the lines of "no! Get it away from me! I want to speak to the human!". With approximately that level of frustration. I thought it was well established that interacting with an actual human was generally preferred to whatever we have to use now. The automation exists to save money on labour, not to make our lives more convenient
- tdeck 7mo agoI think what the parent means is things like iPad ordering and self-service registers, which seem to be much more common in Japan than they even are in the US.
- dyauspitr 7mo ago[flagged]
- castral 7mo agoThis is a pretty sexist take considering the original article was not talking about the male loneliness epidemic, but elderly, and indeed the first example used was even of an elderly woman awaiting delivery. The commentary here is really something else.
- dyauspitr 7mo agoFor a country unable to create enough children to replace themselves I might propose that state assigned surrogates might be by far the most pressing fix to an apocalyptic problem.
- keyringlight 7mo agoAnother variation on this is La Poste in France have a paid service "Watch over my parents" where you can get the postie to do a short regular visit to them (presumably alongside any deliveries) for distant children who can't. https://www.laposte.fr/services-seniors/visites-du-facteur https://www.laposte.fr/services-seniors/visites-du-facteur
- hamasho 7mo agoI grew up on a small village in a small island. The yogurt lady was an essential part of the community. Many stay-at-home moms (including my mom) seemed to enjoy her visit. She and my mom talked a lot, sometimes for hours (I still can't figure out how she completed her job when she spent so much time with one person). They chatted about recent events, like the daughter of the fisherman gave birth, the great-grandpa of the liquor shop died of cancer, a newly opened restaurant in the nearest town sucked, and sometimes shared even personal struggles or family matters. It really helped a lot of people combat mental struggles caused by the isolation of being traditional stay-at-home wives in a super rural area. The only downside was anything you shared with her would be spread in the entire village before dawn.
- dang 7mo agoThis is one for https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights (I mention this so more people can know the list exists, and hopefully email us more nominations)
- baxtr 7mo agoThanks! Didn’t know this existed.
- mh- 7mo agoI love this! Thank you. I spent way too much time on HN this week, so I'd already enjoyed several of these, but this is a great showcase of the content that keeps me coming back here.
- baxtr 7mo ago@dang, how do you curate these? Manually? Have you thought about sourcing these by looking at the most favorited comments per week?
- dang 7mo agoManually, some by ourselves and some nominated by readers. That's a good idea btw - here are some of the most-favorited comments from this past week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47258500 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47258500 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47238442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47238442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237467 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237467 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47232961 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47232961 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47226535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47226535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47214629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47214629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47210627 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47210627 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47206393 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47206393 Only a couple of those were already in /highlights. I'm not sure yet whether this is good enough to be an automatic feed into /highlights but I could imagine adding aggregated /favorites pages to https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists.
- Rendello 7mo agoThere are also some 'mobile supermarkets' run to help the elderly in some rural villages, as seen at 11 minutes in here: https://youtu.be/IiU3Nk16BLQ?t=664 https://youtu.be/IiU3Nk16BLQ?t=664 I know my neck of the woods has a not-for-profit called Meals on Wheels that does something similar.
- spike021 7mo agoSeen a doc about this before also. Some Japanese towns are super rural and may be many kilometers from typical supermarkets. Many don't even have the famous convenience stores. Trains may only run once an hour as well, if that. So these mobile supermarkets are as convenient as it gets.
- GarnetFloride 7mo agoIf I remember right in many of the outlying areas of England the post people would serve the same purpose, though recently there have been cutbacks so they can't spend time. I also saw an estimate that people are giving $7 Trillion in unpaid caregiving services to family and friends. I'm sure the capitalists would love to be able to tap into that, but they have always been anti-civilization that way.
- tdeck 7mo agoWe can pay one another to look after each other's parents. Watch GDP, taxable income, and payment processor fee revenue rise!
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- decimalenough 7mo agoYakult is basically sugar water: that cute little 65mL bottle packs in around 10g of sugar, or around the same as a Krispy Kreme glazed donut. If you want healthy bacteria, eat some yoghurt.
- shevy-java 7mo agoWhat kind of wonky article is that please? > a network of women delivering probiotic milk drinks has become a vital source of routine, connection and care. So, yoghurt deliveries will fix the loneliness problem in Japan? Seriously? Are the people at BBC drunk? You only need to watch some youtube videos to realise that what BBC writes, is narrating things very oddly. Yoghurt deliveries will NOT fix the issue of isolated people. Japan's culture is also very unique, but this is still a somewhat more global issue; South Korea is in a somewhat comparable situation, for instance. A lot of this ties into work culture, too; in Japan even more than in South Korea.
- wraptile 7mo agoYou are missing the point entirely. It's about how retaining human exposure in the societal loops is playing a vital role in keeping people connected and engaged. I'm an European living in Thailand and I see this difference first hand - the auntie doing local food deliveries or uncle selling food from a cart really connect people a billion times more than a super market would. My long term prediction is that we we'll be taking curator-like roles much more seriously due to automation, as having human in the loop is not only needed for debugging automation issues but maintaining healthy society loops as well. This is not a new argument either. Since the inception of cities we know that connection is being lost in extreme efficiency. Ladies delivering yogurt is just trading efficiency for connection.
- susiecambria 7mo agoThis story and many of the comments illustrate the need for and value of human connection. The Yakult Lady is akin to Men's Sheds and long table events (The Longest Table, Longer Tables). Also on the continuum of connection building is the Friendship Bench. These are all interesting to me. But of late, I've honed in on the challenge faced by those who are transitioning from one stage of life or circumstance to another. While working and raising a family, work-related activities such as Toastmasters and family-related ones like church or scouts or athletics, may drive participation in groups. But moving from that through a divorce or RIF or retirement may end previous activities and leave a person with no idea what to do next.