TOKYO -- The women's floor of the Takashimaya Nihombashi department store was filled with colorful summer outfits and red-and-yellow sale signs, and shop attendants waiting to greet customers with friendly calls of "Irasshaimase," or "welcome." The only thing missing was the customers.
The store's midsummer sales campaign usually attracts throngs of bargain-hungry shoppers, but with Japan's coronavirus cases on the rise again and the country's borders still closed to most foreign travelers, brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to win back customers. Sales at Takashimaya Nihombashi in July -- normally one of its busiest months -- dropped 18%.
