HOCK TALK
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INTERVIEW BY ROYCE AKERS
PHOTOS BY BRIONY WRIGHT
As a staunchly working-class suburb, Collingwood has had its fair share of shitty times. Smith Street, the main drag, has served as a popular place to score smack and gamble illegally for decades. Often these two activities cause people to lose money very quickly, so Collingwood is as natural a place as any for a neighborhood pawnshop. Paul Sullivan runs $ulivan’$, the preferred depot for Smith Street’s down-and-out peddlers.
Vice: Have you noticed a change in your business since the economy has slowed down?
Paul Sullivan: Well, I’m meeting someone almost every day who hasn’t pawned anything before. People who have lost their jobs.
Who are your regulars?
About 70 percent of my customers are on a fixed income through a government pension. For those people, it doesn’t matter if we go into the deepest depression imaginable.
I understand Australian pawnshops used to be a lot different. How so?
Well, in the 50s there was a group in Melbourne called Australasian pawnbrokers. But after Vietnam everyone came home and no one needed them anymore. They all shut down.
Is there a difference between what people sold back then and what they sell nowadays?
Someone told me the old pawn stores used to smell terrible because of all the shoes people would take in. Another old lady told me about how her mother used to send her to the pawn store with their used towels and sheets.
Gross!
What changed everything was the opening of the Crown Casino in 1992. They were so sneaky. They had a rewards card that allowed people to build up points so they could get TVs, toasters, and other electronics. But the gamblers already had that stuff. So it all came to the pawnshops. I went from serving pensioners and addicts to guys in cars nicer than mine. They’d come in and say, “How do I do this?”
What are customers bringing in now?
A lot of stuff I don’t even want. I generally deal in jewelry and musical instruments because they’re the only things that hold their value.
So the recession is not much of a help to your business?
If it drags on, you might see a few more people ending up in pawnshops. |
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INTERVIEW BY TOMOKAZU KOSUGA
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GINZO
TRANSLATED BY JOHN TYSOME
Ginzo is the largest chain of pawnshops in Japan, with 70 employees in stores in Tokyo and Osaka. It handles over 20,000 trades annually and offers free assessment 24 hours a day for all the sad, sad nightcrawlers. Stores in the Shinjuku area attract a unique clientele: hostesses and prostitutes who come to sell designer bags that they receive as presents. We had a word with manager Kiyoshi Kojima about real-estate desperation and the hooker-handbag phenomenon.
Vice: Have your customers changed since the slump in the world economy?
Kiyoshi Kojima: Since the financial crisis began we have seen a large increase in goods received as security on money loans for realtors and developers. The number of people bringing in shoes, watches, and suits has also increased. There are more modest customers as well. The number of people with small items for us to hold temporarily so they can go out drinking or on a date is now very large.
What are some of the more peculiar things you’re seeing?
Someone came in with a futon, shouting, “Please, just take it!” I thought he must have been quite close to the edge. Another customer came in with a handmade cardboard championship belt and told us, “I won this in a fair fight. Please, will you buy it?”
What about the girls who work the bars? Are the pawnshops full of designer crap that customers give them for Christmas?
That’s exactly what happens. The most interesting ones are often still in their wrapping paper. It is true that we get many more items after Christmas, but in Shinjuku even our normal-day trade is brisk. Like they say, this is the town of “sexual liaisons and unfolding love affairs.”
So slutty customers are what make Japanese pawnshops so special?
Yes. Japan is probably the only place in the world with pawnshops handling large volumes of same-season brand goods. The speed and turnover of the secondhand-goods market are unique to Japan. You would never see a place advertising “Direct Sale Secondhand Luxury Cars.” I think it’s only a matter of time till we see pawnshops that have “Authorized Secondhand Louis Vuitton Dealership” in their windows. |
CONTINUED:
A PAWNSHOP IN... New York | Mexico City & Brussels | Amsterdam & Vienna | Paris & Milan | Berlin & São Paulo | Helsinki & Barcelona | Melbourne & Tokyo | Vancouver & Aukland | Stockholm & London |
See all articles by this contributor
| sailor, on Oct 12, 2009 wrote:
wow | | Anonymous, on Jul 6, 2009 wrote:
hahah i wish we knew the back story to the japanese futon guy... i bet it was good | | Anonymous, on Jul 6, 2009 wrote:
I like the layout of the pawnshop in tokyo... very classy looking cabinets. the orange is a little much though | | Anonymous, on Jul 2, 2009 wrote:
used towels and sheets is pretty grosss.....but wait its oz they all pass out on the floor and dont wash so the items would have been pretty much untouched. | |
| foxface, on Jul 2, 2009 wrote:
for some reason i never really think of the japanese as a pawning nation. not sure why. | |
| donaghy, on Jul 2, 2009 wrote:
doesn’t the tokyo guy look like the kind of dude that would take all his buddies out for sushi and bumps and karaoke after a good day? | | Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2009 wrote:
"slutty customers are what make Japanese pawnshops so special"...well isnt that nice | | Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2009 wrote:
a pawn shop in Tokyo. I assume there are a lot of hello kittie things. | |
| komodo, on Jun 30, 2009 wrote:
i would give just about anything to have seen the fight where the guy won the cardboard belt buckle. it must have been legendary. | |
| tanger, on Jun 25, 2009 wrote:
in short, kiyoshi aspires to become a used car dealer that deals in things that aren’t cars. that’s a lofty goal, young man. | | Anonymous, on Jun 25, 2009 wrote:
the tokyon one looks really classy and really trashy at the same time. you know, it reminds me of my grandmother’s house. | | Anonymous, on Jun 25, 2009 wrote:
I’ve had some low points in my life but I haven’t had to buy used towels yet. | | |
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