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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

#151

Post by jacquesm »

mariuolo wrote: post #117
bkor wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure about that fact? Pharmacists went on strike in Netherlands this year. Another reply mentioned Poland. It seems there's no EU rule, or maybe it's more that some still need to be open. The majority of what a pharmacy provides is repeat customers anyway. Despite regular customers planning badly pretty much all the time, the majority gets their medicine for a minimum of various weeks. The participation of th…

> The reason was the increase in the aggression towards the people working in a pharmacy. What kind of aggression?

People that want drugs for which they do not have a prescription.

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

#152

Post by learc83 »

ken wrote: post #68
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…

Compared to what? Here in the USA there are several places within walking distance from my home that have a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks. One of them is an intersection where 3 of the 4 corners have a Starbucks. There's at least one building here with 2 Starbucks in it, in case taking the elevator is too much hassle. Japan doesn't sound all that much different in this respect.

In my smallish hometown there is a Waffle House (24 hour diner) across a small interstate bridge from another Waffle House. And then there are 2 more within a very short drive.

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

#153

Post by brazzy »

majos wrote: post #139
redact207 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Because if you operate near your competitor, you can take market share from him without losing the customers that are now farther away from you (because you are still closer to them than your competitor is, and their demand is inflexible).

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

#154

Post by brazzy »

CydeWeys wrote: post #16

I was just in Japan two weeks ago, and convenience stores were omnipresent. I'll admit, it was incredibly convenient, as I never went for lack of food or water, and I got into habit of grabbing a beer and a snack every night to take back to my hotel room before bed. I was relying on them (and vending machines) pretty heavily for coffee and green tea throughout the day as well. There were way too many convenience stor…

> There's no reason they couldn't all coordinate better so that each individual store is only open through the night a couple times per week. That would make a lot more sense.

You incorrectly assume their primary goal is to provide service to customers.

Their primary goal is to maximize profits, and in a saturated market the only way to do that is by trying to take market share from the competition.

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

#155

Post by akg_67 »

thoughtfunction wrote: post #60
RyJones wrote: post #24

I also just came back from Tokyo and Osaka; I was blown away by how many 7/11s there were and how close they were. The vending machines are amazing. One other thing I would like to import: the widely available, clean bathrooms all over the place. That was super nice.

I've heard the combini's are typically cheaper and better than vending machines although.

Yes, it is correct. Vending machines are generally 20% more expensive than conbini. A bottle of water is 98¥ to 120¥ at conbini while 120¥ to 140¥ in vending machines.

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

#156

Post by hrktb »

It’s a bit brushed over and sprinkled in the article but this part was brutal:

> Last year, when Fukui Prefecture was hit by the heaviest snowfall in decades, it was discovered that a 7-Eleven franchise store was banned by the parent company from closing temporarily even after the store owner’s wife fell ill from overwork.

> He lost his wife in May last year and he “was on the verge of falling ill or dying from karōshi (death from overwork),” he said.

It summarizes for me how extreme the relation is between franchise and the owners, how little escape they have from that abusive bind.

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

#157

Post by protonfish »

brazzy wrote: post #154
CydeWeys wrote: post #16

I was just in Japan two weeks ago, and convenience stores were omnipresent. I'll admit, it was incredibly convenient, as I never went for lack of food or water, and I got into habit of grabbing a beer and a snack every night to take back to my hotel room before bed. I was relying on them (and vending machines) pretty heavily for coffee and green tea throughout the day as well. There were way too many convenience stor…

> There's no reason they couldn't all coordinate better so that each individual store is only open through the night a couple times per week. That would make a lot more sense. You incorrectly assume their primary goal is to provide service to customers. Their primary goal is to maximize profits, and in a saturated market the only way to do that is by trying to take market share from the competition.

Profit = income - expense. The other way to maximize profit is reduce wasteful operating expenses.

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

#159

Post by [deleted] »

brazzy wrote: post #153
majos wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because if you operate near your competitor, you can take market share from him without losing the customers that are now farther away from you (because you are still closer to them than your competitor is, and their demand is inflexible).

[deleted]

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

#160

Post by zimpenfish »

fnord77 wrote: post #158

> The owner, in his 40s, said he works 500 hours a month. how is this even possible? That would be almost 17 hours a day, 7 days a week for a 30-day month.

Given it's 24/7, there's only 10 employees, and "the store will be in the red if he hired someone for night shifts", 17 hours a day seems plausible for the owner/manager (if somewhat unhealthy.)
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