Editing The Pen Addict 575/transcript (section)

== DC Pen Show week ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am in full District of Columbia mode. It is DC Pen Show week, which is going to compromise the majority of our show today. Talking about my excitement level heading into this show, which I'll go ahead and spoil it. It's pretty high. Like, I'm feeling pretty, pretty positive about this, which those words don't always line up with DC. So we will talk about that later. But first, Myke, I have to wonder, how many episodes in a row can we report in on the Muji polycarbonate fountain pen?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess until it ends, Claire from Toronto could not find a Muji polycarbonate on their visit to their Muji store. Matt from Tokyo, who was in Tokyo, was saying at the Shinjuku Station Lumine Muji store, there was both the polycarbonate and aluminium fountain pen. And at the Shibuya Muji store, they had the polycarbonate.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So y'all know where to go now. Toronto? No. Tokyo. At least two shops. Yes. I don't know how many Mujis are in Tokyo, I imagine. Many, many, many, many shops. But they're there in Tokyo. Makes sense, given that they're coming from Platinum. Although, yeah, gosh, I would like, is there an interview out there with the people behind Muji? I just want to hear from the Muji stationery people. It's like, how do they coordinate all this with all these different vendors and getting these barrels made and making all this stuff happen?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I think you're seeing it's with difficulty.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Like, I totally just distracted myself thinking about this. It's like, okay, they're the Japanese stores. They're obviously getting this platinum pen. So let's just focus on this one specifically. It is a platinum shape, which makes me think that the white barrel comes from a platinum factory, right? Because those molds are not cheap and they want to use what they already have existing. The nib is stamped from platinum. So is all this coming? Is this one pen coming out of Platinum's factory or is this coming out of somewhere else? And then multiply that by literally every pen that they make with all these different manufacturers and making their own barrel. So I've just ruined my day. I'm going to have to think about this a little bit more after the show. But Muji's always been not secretive. It's just it's what they do, right? It's what they do well, right? And it's kind of cool that they can bring these great goods to more people and at good prices. And it's just basically like the store brand products, right? The generics. But you still get the good stuff on the inside. So I just find the whole thing fascinating. So anyway, thank you all for the updates from, again, around the world. This time Toronto and Tokyo, which is amazing. Amazing to me.