I went to small businesses on Jamaica Plain on February 23.
We went to a place near Jamaica Plain where many small independent stores are located. The cost of land there is very high and it is very difficult for one person to buy land there, so many stores got together and paid for the land together. In addition, each store would have everything they needed at this place, so the store itself would be able to do business only at this place. In other words, the stores in this place support each other in their operations.
And there are two things that surprised me. The first is that there is a donation refrigerator, which anyone can open and eat the food inside, and of course donate the food they don’t eat. I have never seen such a refrigerator before, not even in Japan. As you can see from the picture, the words “Don’t leave anything you wouldn’t eat!” are very impressive. Secondly, I would like to talk about barrier-free. Many of the stores here are in old buildings. As a result, many of the entrances were stepped. That’s why they had installed a bell for the disabled. Rather than giving up on making the building barrier-free because it was old, they had devised a way to make it so. In fact, when I visited here, I saw people in wheelchairs and people with hand disabilities. I am sure that this place would be comfortable for them.
Kaho Matsumura