Hello Sailor Moon fans! With the recent revival of Sailor Moon merchandise in North America, we have received recommendations by our contacts to analyze consumer preferences for purchasing. We would like to know whether or not fans would prefer brick and mortar stores versus online stores, as well as which North American stores would be the best places to stock merchandise.

Yes, we know that we promised that our last survey would be the final one we would conduct, however things always seem to come up that require the input of the Sailor Moon fandom!

Rationale for the survey:

There have been concerns expressed by Canadian fans regarding some of the shipping expenses buying online from Hot Topic. For brick and mortar shoppers, Hot Topic currently has only 4 locations in Canada(all based in Ontario), therefore the option of going to the store to buy the merchandise in person is not available.  As well, many Sailor Moon fans do not have access to any FYE locations in North America. We are pitching to the companies to make merchandise more accessible to North American fans, therefore we really encourage our readers to take this survey – the results will inform the companies as to what the best options are for supplying fans with merchandise.  Last November, one of these companies did approach us asking us to gauge where fans would prefer to buy their merchandise.  We had hoped to launch this survey in January, but merchandise lines kept changing, and it was difficult to coordinate staff to put this together (we all have busy schedules).  Canadians should also take this survey to make their voices heard for where they would like to purchase merchandise – our contacts are interested in the stores you are interested in purchasing Sailor Moon merchandise at!

Survey Instructions:

☾ DO NOT TAKE THIS SURVEY IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN PURCHASING ANY MERCHANDISE.  This is not a survey about anime dvds, blu rays, or manga.  This is a survey about what merchandise has been produced so far (ie T-Shirts, Wall Scrolls, and other accessories) and what will be produced in the future from current license holders such as Hybrid Apparel, Leg Avenue, Great Eastern, and Toei Animation Inc.

☾ There are a total of 20 questions, with 10 of the questions being mandatory.  Questions with the yellow (required) are REQUIRED and questions with the green (optional) are OPTIONAL (we have tried to make this easy for you the readers to take and for us staff to sort out the answers).  Questions 5 thru 7, 9 through 10, 12 through 14, and 16 through 17 are open ended questions for fans to voice their opinions on the merchandise being released so far and while we could have stopped the survey at the first four questions, we have decided to extend the survey so that fans will have an easier time stating their opinions.

☾ PLEASE VOTE ACCORDING TO COUNTRIES YOU SHOP IN (those of you who travel across the border, feel free to answer for both countries). If you are an international respondent, please check the bottom answer “I do not live in or frequent an area with any of these stores.” if you do not frequent the US or Canada.

☾ Please follow the guidelines to the survey – we’ve added a few “hints” to the survey questions to help fans get started with what they want to write about!

Additional survey notes:

☾ Please be aware of the difference between Brick-and-Mortar Stores (stores that you physically shop in, either standalone or in a mall), and Online Stores (stores on the internet).  We have to make this distinction to show the companies how fans would prefer to purchase their merchandise – many fans are not able to buy any Sailor Moon merchandise from FYE, since they do not sell their merchandise online and they do not have as many physical stores as Hot Topic does (especially on the West Coast and in the Central United States).

☾ For residents outside North America who are interested in purchasing the merchandise that has been produced for the North American market, please fill out this survey so we can at least show where fans would prefer to purchase Sailor Moon merchandise online, as well as give them an idea of fan demand for merchandise.

☾  For those of you in Canada who are wondering where Zellers is on our list, we realize Target is going to take over some Zellers stores in Canada.  However, we have not included them on the list due to the fact that many of the newly renovated Target stores will be concentrated in Ontario only.  Furthermore, there will be many Zellers stores in limbo, as Target will not be converting each and every Zellers location. From what we are hearing, some stores may not even open until 2013, so we are keeping Target Canada and Zellers off this list.

And now, on to the survey!