Do you still miss American foods and don’t know where to buy them in Japan? Fortunately, nowadays, there is a store where you can buy those American cereals for breakfast.
The Foreign Buyer`s Club stands as an international online store in Japan. It has been serving immigrants since 1988, when an American couple from Kobe, Kelly and Chuck Grafft, found the best way to get their favorite goods from America. The organization thrived throughout the 1990s and reached its peak sales in 1998, then had about 30,000 members by 1999. The FBC tries to make immigrants’ lives in Japan a little better by bringing you food and entertainment from home. It sounds like the company’s slogan and goal at the same time. Just order anything from anywhere in the US and then the Foreign Buyer`s Club will send it quickly to your door in Japan within only 5-7 days!
In that time people who were far from their American homes really missed those things like Mexican chicken and bagels, breakfast cereal and peanut butter, gluten-free soup and organic oatmeal, whole wheat flour and large boxes of baking soda. So, on the side, the family couple worked on a way to import these items for themselves and their friends using the personal import system. People were pretty excited and soon there were a couple of thousand families ordering several thousand items every week! Therefore, the FBC started its activities. Then some big International schools offered the family to work together, so they did and now do most of the shopping for most of the major International Schools in Japan (and some others around Asia as well.).
The Foreign Buyer`s Club is about buyers not sellers and it represents a small group of people and go get what they want and need for them. Moreover, the FBC has been doing this for over 20 years! It’s good fun and the club enjoys meeting the new members and bringing in new and fun items: from pumpkins at Halloween to thousands of turkeys at the holidays. In addition, there is a so-called Learning Center where you can find ESL products, DVDs, teaching materials, books, puzzles, flash cards, holiday items, stickers, reading sets, etc. Just let them know who you are and what you need, and they work on it for you!
Thus, if you’re in Kobe drop by, but now with the cool new website the FBC can probably do most things for you, just order online.