Claw machines are not just only existed in Taiwan. You can see it in America, Japan, China and almost every country. The products inside are just simply dolls and candies. Since 2017, Taiwanese started to put many different kinds of stuff in it. Such as body lotions, portable chargers, and even PS4!
I study in a college which is located literally in the middle of nowhere. The area around the school is also called a food desert. One lovely sunny day, I was heading to the restaurant I loved as usual. But what I saw there is a big CLOSED word. And the day after, a claw machine store opened right at my favorite restaurant! Of course, I was a little bit pissed off… After that happened, the claw machine stores are EVERYWHERE!
And I would like to call it The Claw Machine Wave.
Why can this market become so popular in such a short period? Is that going to rise forever?
I would like to discuss a little with my shallow knowledge below:
Easy way to be BOSS!
To start a business, we suppose to learn lots of things beforehand. Running the proposals, raising money, hiring employees and managing them. There are tons of things could be mentioned. But with this new model, people no need to struggle all of these. You don’t have to submit any paper to buy machines, and either to manage them(the machines).
This business model is a simple way for people who want to be their own boss. For them, running this is easy to get handy.
Cost of the human resource increased.
As the new policy called One fixed day off and one flexible rest day announced in Taiwan( Even though it has been revised several time, it still can’t fix the problem that happened). The government tried to ensure the employee’s equity. And that leads to the cost of hiring per person become more expensive. Both by the wages and the risk.
For the employers, that doesn’t sound like a good news. If they want to cost down, they have to change their way of running their business. And that is the moment when the claw machine virus spread.
Low risk investment
The business model of claw machine has two sides. One is, the owner of the store, and the other is the owner of the machine.
For the side of the owner of the machine. First, you rent a small place from the store owner. Next, you place your claw machine. And how does it cost you? Buying a claw machine usually cost you around $30,000 NT dollars. The average cost for renting a place is about $5,000 NT dollars. The total fixed costs are $35,000 NT dollars. Plus they don’t have any labor cost and with just a few depreciation. They barely have variable costs.
For the side of the owner of the store. Minus the rent, electricity fee and other costs. They can steadily earn about $150,000 NT dollars per month.
Is the Claw Machine Business a Good Sign?
Even though running a claw machine business can make profits. And 150,000 is not a small number indeed, but yet still not a huge success.
If there are still plenty of rooms ready for claw machines. That means we are losing our dreams!
Now, look back to the starting point of the claw machine. People tended to invest a low risk and low-cost business but with no other reason. Traditional vendors, stationer’s, bookshops, they are all gone. Why?
It reminds me of the claw machine store that replaced my beloved restaurant. I had walked in once and met the owner. He told me that he was the chef at my favorite restaurant. Even there were always full of people, they still kept losing money. At the end, he had to shut it down. Opening a claw machine store, of course, can’t fulfill any part of myself, but at least it can help me support my family.
In my opinion, this phenomenon reflects a very huge problem in Taiwan. People only focus on the very present and ignore the future. This model truly makes your cost recovered fast. But this model only worked under the premise that people still interested in the claw machine.
But let’s ask, what else could they do if they want to make money? In Taiwan, even if you are skilled, your salary still may not able to hit $100,000 NT dollars. Not to mention people unskilled.
There are still lots of economists claiming that this claw machine trend will just like Tulip Mania. Through youtubers and social media, it becomes a new fashion. And of course, you don’t mind to spend few coins to enjoy being fashion. But fashion change fast. Then, what’s next?
