I suspect (and it could alternatively just be cultural business nuances I'm not familiar with) it's likely just not worth the effort for most businesses to crea

I suspect (and it could alternatively just be cultural business nuances I'm not familiar with) it's likely just not worth the effort for most businesses to create a new, once-off 'wholesale' channel when they're presumably selling tens of thousands of items per month through their existing retail channels. Which is understandable. Having heard some stories of foreigners in Japan (cf: patio11 being interrogated as a bike thief for being 1/ a foreigner and 2/ on a bike), it is possible a local assistant may have more luck by seeming less 'suspicious'[1]. [1] Not quite the right word - 'less curiously and slightly unnervingly conspicuous' perhaps?