The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

Post by irq11 » Tue, May 28, 2019, 10:41 AM UTC

Kurtz79 wrote: post #121

masklinn wrote: post #101

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> 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 betwe…

Post by george_kaplan » Tue, May 28, 2019, 10:53 AM UTC

majos wrote: post #139

redact207 wrote: post #135

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I studied this as part of my degree. It's mostly the ice cream vendors problem, where apparently the franchises would prefer to saturate a smaller area with competitors than a larger area with no competition. It's probably an oversimplification but it is painfully evident when walking around metro areas of Japan.

Why would ice cream vendors want to all compete in the same place? It seems economically counter-intuitive.

Post by ekianjo » Tue, May 28, 2019, 11:25 AM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #126

ekianjo wrote: post #34

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> 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 ther…

Post by ekianjo » Tue, May 28, 2019, 11:26 AM UTC

Kurtz79 wrote: post #100

karaokeyoga wrote: post #53

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From my place in suburban Kyoto, there are five 7-11s within a ten-minute walk. Ten years ago, there was one.

I was in Kobe a few weeks ago and it was the same, all over the city center. As a consumer honestly there is little to complain, they ARE very convenient. But grandparent is correct: a lot of items are expensive for what they are (some of the "fresh" meals cost as much as a eating in a normal ramen/noodle place on the street), so you pay for the convenience.

Post by Kurtz79 » Tue, May 28, 2019, 11:38 AM UTC

elgenie wrote: post #123

rangibaby wrote: post #20

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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/publicd…