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The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

japantimes.co.jp

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Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#121

Post by Kurtz79 »

masklinn wrote: post #101
Freak_NL wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now the hot canned coffee wasn't actually good (I had to try it) You just have to find the one type of can that doesn't have added sugar or milk. Once you know those nothing beats pulling a warm can of black coffee from the machine. Really, the first company to introduce these on stations here in the Netherlands (or anywhere these don't exist) will turn a handsome profit if they stick to the Japanese formula for 自動…

> Once you know those nothing beats pulling a warm can of black coffee from the machine. I'd say pulling a bottle of warm lemon / lime tea was even better, especially with travel-sore-throat. > low prices Aside from providing warm drinks, that's the big ticket right there: IME, european vending machines are basically predatory, they're way overpriced for what they provide and rely on necessity or impulse rather than…

"Aside from providing warm drinks, that's the big ticket right there: IME, european vending machines are basically predatory, they're way overpriced for what they provide and rely on necessity or impulse rather than just doing good business."

Absolutely agree: I don't remember the last time I bought something from a public vending machine (or even seeing someone else doing so) here in Spain.

Prices are anywhere between 2/3 times the price you would buy at a supermarket, an Airport shop kind of markup: whatever you get tastes bad as you feel swindled.

When I was in Japan it was rare if I didn't get something from a machine any given day.

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#122

Post by typeliftr »

mft_ wrote: post #118

It would seem that this is ripe for automation, no? In fact, I've been surprised for some time that there hasn't been a greater development/proliferation in this area. It would seem that a large (room-sized) refrigerated vending machine offering a range equivalent to a small convenience store is already highly technologically feasible, and would probably be far more cost efficient (smaller footprint, much lower staff…

I feel like vandalism and theft would be a big problem in this scenario.

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#123

Post by elgenie »

rangibaby wrote: post #20
CydeWeys wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Japan (really Tokyo, I guess) stopped being truly 24-hours post 2011 earthquake." Really? This surprises me, given that the population of Tokyo has only continued to rise since then, and Tokyo wasn't nearly as badly affected as many other parts of Japan. How long did the power issues last following the earthquake, and why would they still continue to have effects so many years later?

The effects of the Lehman shock and 3/11 disaster hit the middle class hard, the blame is pointed at millennials for being thrifty (Why aren't young people buying luxury cars? Why do young people buy everything second hand?), but the reality is that middle class Japanese have less disposable income than 10,20, and especially 30 years ago

Japanese GDP now is ~$500B less than it was in 1995. [1] A country can't experience 25 years of economic stagnation as a whole and magically generate a large cohort of young people with money to throw around.

Things are a little better in purchasing power per capita terms [2], but not by enough to make a difference.

[1] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

[2] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#124

Post by kibibyte »

typeliftr wrote: post #122
mft_ wrote: post #118

It would seem that this is ripe for automation, no? In fact, I've been surprised for some time that there hasn't been a greater development/proliferation in this area. It would seem that a large (room-sized) refrigerated vending machine offering a range equivalent to a small convenience store is already highly technologically feasible, and would probably be far more cost efficient (smaller footprint, much lower staff…

I feel like vandalism and theft would be a big problem in this scenario.

Outside of Japan maybe, but it's something that would work in that culture. From my last trip to Japan a couple of years ago, I saw vending machines everywhere. In urban areas, there would be one every couple of city blocks in urban areas; I even encountered a few in the middle of park trails in relatively more secluded areas (e.g. more or less the middle of a forest). All these vending machines appeared unattended, but they always had inventory.

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#125

Post by ben_ev »

Dobbs wrote: post #104
barking wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a pharmacy contracted to dispense public health service prescriptions is probably contingent on either providing out-of-hours service or being part of a rota that does that. It's that way in lots of countries.

This is something the U.K. could use. Particularly on bank holidays, Sunday’s, or early mornings it can be quite difficult to find a pharmacy.

It exists. Pharmacies open late on rotation here with one being available late night. IIRC in some places it's a hospital pharmacy that you can get a prescription from if it's an emergency. You can find open pharmacies here: https://beta.nhs.uk/find-a-pharmacy/ or call 111 if urgent.

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#126

Post by kalleboo »

ekianjo wrote: post #34
bane wrote: post #3

Just came back from Japan and man are there too many convenience stores. Within any given area there is probably 6 to 7 stores within eyeshot and an easy walk. It's weird thinking that they are too convenient, but honestly they start to become pointless. More than once we simply walked by a few knowing that there would be another one just a minute or two more down the street. It's great that we could find something t…

> Within any given area there is probably 6 to 7 stores within eyeshot and an easy walk. That's just Tokyo and it's a very biased impression. Most places in Japan don't have that kind of density of combinis. I there there are about 55 000 combini in Japan, and there's probably 20% of that in Tokyo alone so you were in an area that's not representative of japan as a whole. In most other other cities there's rarely mor…

> In most other other cities there's rarely more than one combini at the same place, and you would not see 5-6 of them just by walking 5 minutes.

I live in a prefectural capitol in Southern Kyushu and yeah you're right - we only have 3 convenience stores in 5 minute walking distance. That's in a residential area and not in the central district where there are more.

I lived in a similarly sized city in Sweden and there was literally one single 24/7 convenience store in the whole city. And I think it closed.

> Never seen a combini owner that was poor or having a hard time to make ends meet.

Well obviously, they quickly become ex-owners. We have 3 convenience stores near our apartment that have shut down in the past couple years. They wouldn't shut down if they were profitable.

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#127

Post by Camas »

Moru wrote: post #96
icebraining wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think unconstrained, uncontrolled capitalism will result in 90% of the global population working very low income, replaceable jobs, or being completely replaced by automation. I think that's likely; after all, capitalism already replaced the jobs of 90% of the developed world population with automation and other efficiencies: that's why most of us no longer work in agriculture. Now, was that a net negative develo…

It was for the unemployed farmers help that is no longer needed and is now stuck with a house in a town where the prices have dropped way below the mortage on the house and 60 km to the closest store/gas station.

That some people might be worse off says nothing about the net effect.

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#128

Post by Freak_NL »

agent008t wrote: post #112
Freak_NL wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now the hot canned coffee wasn't actually good (I had to try it) You just have to find the one type of can that doesn't have added sugar or milk. Once you know those nothing beats pulling a warm can of black coffee from the machine. Really, the first company to introduce these on stations here in the Netherlands (or anywhere these don't exist) will turn a handsome profit if they stick to the Japanese formula for 自動…

Are you kidding? The warm vending machine corn soup is the best thing in winter!

I guess it's an acquired taste — and this is coming from someone who feels a nattō sandwich is a great way to start the day when in Japan¹.

1: The fermented beans compensate for the lousy fibreless bread, and it sure beats rice for breakfast. The mustard is a must-have though.

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#129

Post by snaky »

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #40
raverbashing wrote: post #32

7-11 is not friendly to Franchisees in the US either. There have been some lawsuits even Owning a convenience store is a hard proposition

It's not just 7-Eleven. I wouldn't want to be a franchisee of any sort in the US. The power dynamic is horrible. McDonald's is probably one of the better ones. But you're still beholden to them. They often own the land under the building, if not the building itself. They tell you exactly what you must do. They tell you when to remodel. They make you buy from their suppliers. They can decide to open another store a mi…

Or maybe there's just so much more to go wrong.

> But quantity can’t obscure what one Chinese energy journal last month referred to as the industry’s “Quality-Gate” scandal. The numbers are damning. In 2018, Chinese manufacturers recalled 135,700 NEVs for a crushing 10.8 percent industrywide recall rate. Already this year, another 23,458 electric vehicles have been recalled.

> Batteries are the most common source of problems. Some don’t perform as advertised. Others drain unusually fast. Still others run dangerously hot. More than 40 NEVs spontaneously combusted in China in 2018.

> Other issues include faulty motors, faulty transmissions, faulty odometers and bad odors (a problem to which Chinese consumers are particularly sensitive). Most notably, according to market research firm J.D. Power, problems are far more common in Chinese NEVs than in traditional Chinese-made cars.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-20/qualit...

Re: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

#130

Post by kalleboo »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #50
CydeWeys wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free public bathrooms everywhere was nice, but there was still a dearth of free public water fountains -- which, admittedly, most cities don't have enough of. Rome is kind of the gold standard in this regard. I loved how some of the vending machines and convenience stores sold hot canned drinks. I've never seen that anywhere in the US. Now the hot canned coffee wasn't actually good (I had to try it), but it was inter…

Public water fountains aren't really an Asian thing. I am hard pressed to think of an Asian country where I remember using one.

Japan has lots of public water fountains, they're just all located in local parks where kids play (not places tourists typically go)
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