Japanese consumers divided between thrift and extravagance

Tokyo

"FIVE black beans, please," a customer says at the deli counter in the Odakyu department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where the number of customers ordering minute amounts of prepared foods such as simmered beans or pumpkin is increasing.

"That will be 93 yen (S$1.26)," the clerk says, picking up beans one by one with well-practiced movements and placing them in a small packet.