Tuesday, August 25, 2009

TMP Anime Decides to Pack It Up

Twin Moons Anime (TMP) has decided to pack it up and exit the business for now. Tamim (the owner) cites the terrible economy on his blog:
"I know that many of you have noticed that the Twin Moons Anime web site hasn’t been updated in some time and have been wondering whether we’re still in business. Well, the sad truth is that I’m currently in the process of slowly closing down the store due to the horrible economy.

Twin Moons Anime has always been a labor of love for me and never my full-time job due to the fact that it was barely making any money. It was just doing enough to pay for my own collecting addiction. Unfortunately when the economy fully went south last year, I really felt the hit with the store. Sales just started plummeting and I was forced to focus more on my consulting business to pay my bills. It was becoming very obvious that I simply couldn’t run the store with the level of service that I would like to provide to my customers.

I want to thank each and every one you who have supported me over the years. It has been an absolute pleasure serving you guys and I’m so very glad to have met some of you in person. I really hope that we will be keeping in touch."
Tamim focused mostly on the figure and toy side of the business, and he did a lot of business on the convention circuit (which is expensive, extremely time consuming, and not 'necessarily' very profitable). Even though we were competitors per say, I always liked and admired him and his business and felt like he ran a class 'A' shop (unlike so many others out there). Him and I had talked a little bit via back in May about the Anime economy, the future of the R1 industry, and such and he had told me then that he was planning to close up the shop after Anime Expo . I probably understand better than most the effort and sacrifice required to carve out a living in this industry, and I can say that Tamim will be missed, especially as RACS soldiers on.

I wish you the best of luck my friend. Take care, and keep up the faith. :-)

2 comments:

Tamim said...

Thanks for the kind words Robert. I'm just thankful that I have my consulting business still that's been doing well and I wish you guys the best in this terrible economy. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you with my inventory list, but frankly I got so caught up with work that I just haven't had time to get to it. Drop me a line sometime and let me know how things are going in anime land!

Richard J. said...

@ Tamim: Even though I've never met you or had any dealings with you, I wish you the very best in the future. I hope that you can keep things going with your consulting business until the current mess is sorted out.

From a fan to a fan, I hope you can always stay a part of something you love, even if you can't do it for a job.