Japan redefining convenience store experience from snacks to style
Ideas:
Whenever I travel to Japan, which is two or three times a year, I always go to Japanese convenience stores, as the quality of the food is excellent and the selections are excellent too.
The convenience stores in other countries, mainly the US and South Korea, just can't compare and the quality of everything is very different.
Japan has taken the convenience store to an art form, as no country can compare with what Japan has done in the convenience store industry.
The latest fashion trend related to Japanese convenience stores is the latest innovation that keep getting better and better.
You can almost do everything in a Japanese convenience store such as postal matters, sending mail, faxes, banking, picking up orders from Amazon that you bought online, including ATM also.
What is significant too, is there are many foreign students working at Japanese convenience stores, as for some reason young Japanese university students don't want to work there or it doesn't fit their schedule or its not the pay they want.
Most likely the convenience store fashion items are going to cut into the sales of Muji, Uniqlo, and Loft, which have fashion items too of course.
It seems Japanese customers like convenience stores for canned/bottled drinks too, as for the most part, the number of coffee shops are not as many as in other countries,
There are also a lot of places to buy canned/bottled drink at machines in and around Japan, and or course in convenience stores too, which means Japanese customers go there a lot instead of maybe a coffee shop.
That shows that networks are important as a convenience store can use a manufacturing company to produce the fashion products it needs for it stores.
Of course convenience stores can't really turn into a fashion store like Uniqlo, but it shows how innovation can drive sales and also help when convenience stores see new trends and they can easily move into whatever is the latest trend in the retail market.
Back to the idea of foreign students working at convenience stores in Japan, as I never see any foreign students working at convenience stores in South Korea, as there could be many reasons such as immigration laws might prevent them from working there and or Korean companies don't want to hire foreign workers.
Of course, again, convenience stores are not going to be the next Uniqlo, as its just not their mission, but small things like towels and socks might be in convenience more and more in the future.
Who knows whats next for convenience stores, as how much longer can they innovate without moving too away from their core strengths.
Maybe, unfortunately, the future is going to be AI and robotic innovations, as there is a so-called labor shortage in Japan, such as most Japanese convience stores have foreign workers and not many Japanese university students working in them.
But that might actually cost more money that its worth to set up, and for the most part, Japanese cant to see a real person and not a robot serving them are helping them when they pay for their drinks or food.
The Muji brand is almost like a no-brand product, so selling in Lawson makes perfect sense and Muji is a name brand but its a basic name brand so even a no-brand type product.
Its good that Muji and Lawson has hooked up to sell Muji products in convenience stores, as again finding ways to reach the customer and providing what customers want and need.
Most likely Seven -Eleven will eventually begin to so what the others have done, as they don't want to lose market share to the other convenience stores. Of course sock alone is not going to change the market, but if one convenience stores is making significant sales in some product the other stores are going to find a way to do it too.
The contrast between the US convenience stores and Japanese convenience stores is not like day and night as US stores are not even on the same planet as that is how different they are.
US stores are just a small place for maybe travelers to stop at while Japanese convenience stores are more like for anything and everything you want or need.
Of course most Japanese convenience stores are in big Japanese cities, for the most part, while many US convenience stores are road stops and gas stations, with just some food and drinks only and not a great selection of anything.
Even if there are convenience stores in big cities in the US, they still can't compare with the large selection of products like in a Japanese convenience store.
Maybe its just a difference in culture, maybe its a difference in marketing, or maybe its a difference in priorities, as Japanese convenience stores have evolved into more than just a place to stop at in the mornings before going to work or before returning home at night.
Of course you really can't just live on Japanese convenience store products, but it quite possible to do it, but who really wants to do it.
Japanese convenience stores always seem to be changing or innovating, as maybe because of the competition among Japanese stores as they need to keep as step a head or at least keep up with others in the market.
As I often visit convenience stores in Japan, usually in Yokohama, which is just west of Tokyo in the same metro area, I see many foreign workers at Japanese convenience stores with name tags in katakana, which is what is used for foreign names in Japan.
Again, what I don't see a lot of is Japanese university age students working at Japanese convenience stores, as for whatever reason, they don't want to work there or the hours don't fit their schedule, and or they don't want to work for minimum wage, and or just don't like the work.
I first noticed Japanese convenience stores way back around 1999 when I would stay at a Japanese hotel, and go to the Japanese convenience store in the morning for some Japanese food, which at that time was good then too.
So I've been visiting Japanese convenience stores for over 25 years and every time I go there the offerings are high quality, and even the food offerings are a lot and they always restock several times a day.
Many companies are now jumping on the Japanese convenience store bandwagon and trying to capitalize on the popularity of convenience stores, especially with foreign visitors to Japan.
But Japanese convenience stores, again, need to be very careful that they don't forget their original mission, and or maybe they've moved way past the original ideas many years ago.
Just an observation, there are not many coffee shops in Tokyo or Yokohama, compared to Seoul South Korea, which seems to have a a coffee shop on every corner, and more than one.
Its seems, maybe true or not true, there are a lot of vending machines in Japan, along with many convenience stores that sell canned and bottled drinks, but in South Korea, there are almost no vending machines, or not a lot.
Maybe trying to normalize buying clothes at convenience will become or is now popular, but Japanese convenience stores will never replace Muji and or Uniqlo or GU for clothes in Japan.
But of course that is not the goal of Japanese convenience stores as they found something that is popular and trying to capitalize on the current trend.
Most likely other Japanese convenience stores will do the same thing in the future, with small fashion items and maybe customers will like them too.
FamilyMart is trying to break the mold of what a traditional convenience stores should do or be, but that seems to be the trend for a long time, of trying to look and feel different than the other convenience stores.
But just how much can they change or innovate and keep with their original mission of what they do best.
That is the challenge of all Japanese convenience stores, now, to change as needed but staying within the scope of what a convenience in Japan should be.
Japanese convenience stores can better be full-service type department stores, as they are just too small space-wise to be anything but a small store.
Have a nice day!
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