While many unmanned stores in Japan are in rural areas that sell veggies, there are some located in urban areas like this one.
An unmanned store is called Mujin Hanbaisho [無人販売所] and is basically a shop where you are trusted to take an item and leave money for the owner who is not around.
This particular unmanned shop is in my neck of the woods - the Ebara/Meguro part of Tokyo.
The tub on the left says "anything inside here is 10 yen" while the basket on the right says "Ageru" [あげる] which means "I give you (for free).
A closer look at the table which has various bits n bobs priced up to 1,000 yen. You can see a small wooden box on the table with a hole in it which is where you should leave the money to pay for the item.
I didn't really take a close look at the table so not sure if they got change but there are places like this shrine that does actually have zennys for you to leave a larger note and take small change.
Some second hand items of clothing ranging from 10 yen to 500 yen.
I didn't realize at the time until I read the notice on the door to search for "Sobarogu" which I did. It looks like they run a little soba noodle place - when they are not open, they leave stuff outside unattended for folks to buy.
Sounds like a good idea to make use of ones space in front of the shop or garage to sell stuff when one is not around but while this works in Japan, it certainly would not work where I was brought up in - London Hackney.
Would unmanned shops like this work in your neck of the woods?
This post contains a poll, click here to view.