I watched a couple videos of people walking down the streets of akihabara and was surprised at the sheer amount of workers handing out flyers or menus. One block must have had approximately 15-20 girls.
How do these places stay open with so much competition?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/16fm6ia/how_do_the_maid_cafés_in_akihabara_stay_in/
12 comments
Low pay for workers and paying customers.
There are still way more horny desperate weebs than there are maids
Otaku and tourists (and the overlap between the two)
There are actually not that many maid cafes and many of those maids handing out flyers outside are from the same cafe. It’s a sign of a slow day since if their cafe was full then they won’t have time to hand out flyers. Many maid cafes have actually closed down in the wake of covid and general loss of identity on the part of Akihabara
Probably through misleading menu prices (make sure to read the fine print) and extreme markups on cheap food and beverages + various extra service charges? – watch out for any limited/seasonal items where you don’t know the exact price
Generally you can expect to pay 3000yen for a drink, photo and omurice. Their business model is different than anywhere else that sells omurice and a drink.
And there aren’t that many cafes.
Just come back from a trip to Tokyo, believe me the maid cafe I went to was very upfront and clear about pricing, you stay for an hour and need to at least get a drink and there is a small table charge. They do packages like a photo with the maid and cokes with a meal and drink. They are very full and honestly I can see why, ours was full of families and its really cute.
*fixed spelling mistake: cage-cafe 🤣
A lot of them are girls bars and not maid cafes.
Girls bars only pay girls 1,700jpy an hour. A lot of the time they are only paid for their time with clients. The consumer spends a flat fee of around 3,000jpy an hour with unlimited cheap booze. Better alcohol costs significantly more, the customer can also buy the girl a drink (she doesnt get a share of the profit).
These jobs are appealing to young girls since they get paid on the day and can do it with low notice. For example, a university student can just call up a manager and get a paid gig on the day.
These bars make about 1million jpy a month and are low risk. Since a lot of these girls bars are on higher floors in shady areas their rents are next to nothing.
Edit:
This is a vague explaination of the business model, and shouldnt be taking as gospel.
tl:dr most of those girls in akibabra, shinjuku, ect are actually for girls bars not maid cafes.
Maid’s wage is 3000 yen an hour or something (I don’t actually know, this is an example). Average customer spends 3100 an hour. They only need to recruit 1 person an hour to be making money.
Other services are being sold wink wink
Supply and demand.
>How do these places stay open with so much competition?
Not really competitions when only two major maid cafes handle like 90% of traffic in Akihabara, [Maidreamin](https://maidreamin.com/)& [@home cafe](https://www.cafe-athome.com/). If you are talking about girls passing flyers near Kotobukiya area, most of them are likely to be cosplay/theme cafe, girls bar, or massage services which has different target consumers.