Retailers know that image maintenance is important for their bottom lines, as proven by Otsuka Kagu Ltd.'s 37.8 percent drop in sales last month compared to March 2014.

Otsuka is one of Japan's best-known furniture stores, and since last year it has been roiled by a dispute within the family that owns and runs it. Chairman and founder Katsuhisa Otsuka objected to changes that his daughter, Kumiko Otsuka, the company's president, intended to carry out, thus setting the stage for a proxy fight among shareholders. Kumiko came out on top, but the damage was done: Consumers, it seems, don't like to watch family businesses implode in public.

However, the dispute and its financial effects have drawn attention away from what it was all about — namely, a change in service policy. Kumiko believed that the membership sales model the company had always used was no longer relevant in today's economic environment.