Japanese Supermarkets And Customers

 Article Source:https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220604/p2g/00m/0li/040000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- As grocery retailers chase speed and efficiency through technology, a few are bucking the trend by launching "slow lanes" for those who are not capable of blitzing through a self-checkout.

Maiya Takizawa, a regional supermarket chain in the northeastern Japan city of Takizawa, has taken up the cause for senior citizens and those who are not interested in high-paced modern life, with those who have special needs a particular focus.

Recently, 84-year-old wheelchair user Yoriko Sakurano, with the help of a volunteer carer, made a trip to the Maiya Takizawa outlet in Iwate Prefecture, where she can have an enjoyable shopping experience free of confusion and embarrassment.

Ideas:

Its important that businesses be able to try and meet the needs of all of its customers and try not to leave any out.

For example, many fast food places, some coffee shops and so on are now using order machines as a way to cut costs and reduce employees. That might sound like a good idea but maybe there are some customers who don't know or can't use the order machines and then will never return.

Self-checkouts are good, if there are long lines at the regular check-out lanes and or for those who only have a few items and don't want to wait in a long line.

Unfortunately high-paced modern life might not be the best for everyone. Companies need to know and understand and try to make customer as painless as possible.

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As a person with dementia, the last thing Sakurano needs is pressure from a queue of impatient toe-tappers behind her. Fortunately, at Maiya Takizawa, she is able to take as much time as she wants during her transaction in the dedicated slow checkout lane.

Sakurano's husband Masayuki, 74, knows that shopping is one of his wife's favorite activities and praises the local retailer for being a dementia-friendly business that allows her to hold on to her cherished independence.

"I'm very grateful that this (slow service) allows my wife to keep a smile on her face," he said.

Ideas:

Very good for this company that knows that not all customers are the same and can provide a time and space to allow this customers to shop without all of the modern day pressures of life.

Its probably not possible for every supermarket or every restuarant, or other business to be able to meet the needs of every type of customer but there should be places, even in big cities like Tokyo that can find ways to cater to different groups.

Banks and maybe even post offices need to be very understanding of different groups. But unfortunately today, there might be the downsizing of the banking industry with many branches either closing and or moving towards automation and or online banking. 

Not all customers want or need that kind of service, but sometimes businesses don't think about all the different types of customers they have.

Uniqlo and GU and I'm sure many others have moved into self-checkout platforms,but there always seems to be an employee around to help those who are having challenges with the self-checkout systems.

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Maiya Takizawa introduced the relaxed checkout lane in 2019. It was Toshiaki Konno, a local private practice physician, who came up with the idea and broached the subject with the company's head of operations.

"I heard stories from dementia patients about how they had negative shopping experiences and how they were discouraged by family members from going to physical stores. But they wanted to go," Konno said.

"Women who used to be housewives in particular experience a sense of loss when they are robbed of that role. Shopping improves patients' confidence and helps stabilize symptoms," he said.

Ideas:

Good for this doctor and the supermarket in working together to help those who have challenges in their daily lives. If possible there should be more stores and companies doing something like this.

At the same time, if possible. even online platforms should make the shopping experience as simple as possible. 

Not everyone wants to wade through layers and layers of clicks and more clicks to finally buy something online. It would be in the best interest of a store to make the online shopping experience as quick and simple as possible. 

Unfortunately there are some businesses who only want to cater to the 20 somethings, the 30 somethings and so on who might be very tech savy but there are more customers out there if the online shopping experience was less challenging and made easier for everyone.

Its like smartphones and computers. They should not be difficult to use and everyone should be able to use them. For example, the Google Chromebook came along years ago as a way to make it much easier to use a notebook computer without all of the hassle that happens sometimes with windows type notebooks.

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Although the current best-practice retail strategy focuses on getting as many customers through a store as quickly as possible, with rapidly aging populations in general, and particularly in superaged Japan, a slow lane serves as a community service.

Japan is aging fast, with its population the oldest in the world. As of 2021, 29.1 percent of the population was 65 or older.

By age group, the number of people aged 80 or older totaled 12.06 million, up 460,000 from a year earlier, and that of those aged 90 or older reached 25.9 million, including 80,000 centenarians.

Ideas:

Again it might not be possible for every store to meet the needs of every customers in every age-group but they should be aware of the needs of different groups and find ways to help them whenver they can.

Even the idea maybe of having specific employees, for example, avaiable at specific times of the day to help those who reall need help with their shopping. That way maybe a store doesn't need to have specifc shopping days for only one group.

There could be the idea of a slow-lane checkout for certain age groups only and other age groups go through the regular fast lanes or the regular self-checkout lanes. 

There could even be the idea of appoitments at supermarkets or other places where an aged person can make an appoitment and trained employees can help and wait on them as needed. 

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With figures like that, the need for slow lanes will only increase, but even the existing ones are not always in operation.

The slow lane at Maiya Takizawa is open for one to two hours every Thursday afternoon.

Maiya Takizawa further raised their senior-friendliness a notch by improving in-store displays and signage, using larger, easy-to-read fonts and clear images.

More than 10 volunteers signed up as shopping assistants to support customers with food shopping and other grocery-related tasks.

Ideas:

So this stores maybe is ahead of the curve in meeting the needs of some groups. As Japan is becoming even a more aged society there probably needs to be even more stores like this one.

Of course its not possible for a department store like Sogo in Yokohama station to offer this kind of service exactly as Sogo and Takashimaya at Yokohama station are just too busy and too crowded every day for any kind of real peronalized services for aged groups.

The only option maybe is personalized shopping assistants. For example a company, they start a service that helps the aged go shopping etc. The aged person makes and appoitment and the shopping assistant takes them to different stores or shops and helps them a few hours each day or week.

So there might be many different ways to meet the needs of the aged besides just having one store only doing it.

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Other stores in Japan are following suit and looking to do more to cater for less-able customers, with places like Hiroshima-based shopping center operator Izumi opening slow lanes in 64 stores, and the consumer cooperative society in Fukui Prefecture doing the same in all 10 of its branches.

Minako Shimizu, a store manager in a 7-Eleven convenience store in Kyoto, adopted the slow shopping option because she "couldn't pretend not to notice" the struggles of her senior customers, some of whom are familiar faces from her neighborhood.

Because she saw some of the challenges people with dementia faced in-store, the 59-year-old Shimizu wanted to better understand and support customers with impaired cognitive function. She and all the staff in her store received dementia training.

Ideas:

So very good that many companies and indivduals in Japan see the need to peronalize the shopping experience for some as needed. 

But again it might not be possible for every business to do it. But they should be aware of the needs of such shopping groups.

Another idea might be for stores is to have specific early shopping hours for those who are challenged, for example maybe open an hour or two earlier than usual one or a few days a week and that way they don't have lose any time with their other customers.

But of course there might be some stores who just won't do it as they feel they need to get as many customers in and out as quickly as possible and the can't afford to cater to other groups.

Then the idea of what kind of company is it really. Is it a company that caters to all kinds of cutomers. Do they take a more wholistic approach to business or are they only thinking about the bottom-line only.

Article:

At her store, the staffers escort older adults who need help with shopping, use gentle, respectful language when customers with dementia exhibit behaviors that may seem confusing, and use a handheld price scanner for a smooth checkout process.

"Self-scan machines can be intimidating for elderly shoppers so if they look panicked we make sure we interact with them and calm them. We operate in close proximity to local communities so I hope we can continue to give customers the service they need," Shimizu said.

Ideas:

So here again is a person who is ahead of the curve in Japan. She saw the needs of her customers and she responded in the correct way to make sure the aged customers have a positive shopping experience, even if it just at a 7-11.

Hopefully there are going to be many more stores in Japan like this in the future and many more managers in stores in Japan like this in the future. 

Japan has always been known for having world-class customer service. This is a perfect example of world-class customer service. Maybe a better term is Japanese style customer service.

But shouldn't this be they way for all stores related to customer service. Shouldn't this be what customer service should always be like.

Have a nice day and be safe!