Japan Convenience Stores and Tourists:Updated Jan. 28, 2025

 

Japan 2024 convenience stores sales at record high on inbound tourism

  Article source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250121/p2g/00m/0bu/002000c

Ideas:

Convenience stores in the US and Japan are very much different, and maybe in the EU too, as convenience stores in the US are almost non-existent compared to Japan convenience stores.

Also maybe because of the geographic nature of Japan being a densely populated country in a small geographic area, which makes it easier to have more convenience stores.

Many or most convenience stores in the US are maybe just gas stations with a few food or drink items, which have no real consumer appeal while in Japan the convenience stores are consumer magnets as they draw people into the stores, while in the US they might detract people from going into them.

Price increases might have contributed to the decrease but a decrease of 0.05 percent as it really wasn't that much, so that was not that much so price increases might not have been the contributing factor for the decrease.

It could have been just consumer choice as what consumers liked and didn't like at that time, and not so much an increase in prices.

Weather always plays a role in some consumers choices buying hot or cold drinks and at the same time maybe then novelty of Japanese convenience stores and curiosity might have been a factor in some increases.

As more visitors go to Japan and leave and then go back to their countries they might tell people, if you go to Japan go to a Japanese convenience store and see how good they are.

Again the decrease in monthly sales might have nothing to do with price increases but maybe related to consumer choice just as what consumers like or don't like

And then there is the idea that for Japanese consumers maybe they might have lost interest in going to convenience stores like consumer lose interest in many things over time.

Its quite possible that Japanese convenience stores need to innovate again and re-invent them selves if Japanese consumers are losing interest in them.

Have a nice day!