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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

#171

Post by granshaw »

SenHeng wrote: post #134
frequentnapper wrote: post #31

I currently stay in japan. The competition here is intense when it comes to food and drink. Every alley, even in residential areas in the back of the houses, has some mom & pop operated hole in the wall eatery. I never see more than two customers at many of these places at a time, but they stay open ungodly hours. I can't imagine they would be making more than $2-3 an hour on the average after all the costs.

A lot of family run retail shops all over the world/Asia seem to have this misconception that family labour is free, thus their employees/children/siblings are effectively working for below minimum wage.

It’s an arrangement. Low paid labor now for ownership of the business in the future

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

#172

Post by Retric »

protonfish wrote: post #157
brazzy wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

As long as your chasing profit not revenue expenses are already part of the equation.

If being open at 2am provides 1$ an hour of profit, that’s still profit.

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

#173

Post by innocenat »

irq11 wrote: post #138
innocenat wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I understand if those places seem amenable to you, but I (and pretty much everyone I know who lived there long term) wouldn't set foot in one of those past their college years. They're horrible for your body. I'd sooner eat conbini food and pass out. Regularly see elders in my local Yoshinoya. The Beef-Salmon set is good.

Yoshinoya is junk food. The OP isn’t being literal, but the point is correct: Yoshinoya seems great if you’re a tourist and you’ve had it once or twice in your life. But if you live there you begin to associate it with missed trains and late-night binge drinking. I had to be pretty wasted to eat gyuudon - even an old onigiri from a sketchy conbini was preferable. Are there people who eat there regularly? Sure. There…

I live here, and I did say Beef-Salmon set, not Gyuudon.

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

#174

Post by justsomeguy3591 »

danmaz74 wrote: post #80
ken wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are Starbucks [in the US] open 24/7? Edit: added [in the US].

The one located at Times Square in NYC is [0] but that's the only one I've seen so far.

[0] https://www.starbucks.com/store-locator/store/13918/43rd-bro...

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

#175

Post by CydeWeys »

kalleboo wrote: post #130
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

That tended to be the only place I found them, and yes, I definitely filled up my water bottles there.

This tip tends to work for all countries, not just Japan. Look for green parks on Google Maps, especially named ones, if you're trying to find water fountains.

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

#176

Post by CydeWeys »

baby wrote: post #55
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

tbf a bunch of asian countries do not have drinkable tap water or/and drink hot water.

You have to go pretty far down the development scale of nations before you get to undrinkable tap water.

I didn't have any problems drinking the tap water in Bangkok for a week, for example.

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

#177

Post by CydeWeys »

Freak_NL wrote: post #73
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…

> 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…

I did get the black coffee can, and it wasn't good. I usually drink coffee black, but that's only when it's freshly made; I tend that I actually tend to prefer the premixed kinds that come with milk in them.

There's just something about being brewed potentially months ago, and then kept at an elevated temperature for many days, all the time in an aluminum can, that doesn't lead to good tastes. It tasted metallic. And interestingly, it was actually hard to hold (and even open) at first, because it was hot, being an uninsulated aluminum can that was in a heater. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I could even hold it firmly in one hand without having to juggle it around a lot.

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

#178

Post by seanmcdirmid »

CydeWeys wrote: post #175
kalleboo wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That tended to be the only place I found them, and yes, I definitely filled up my water bottles there. This tip tends to work for all countries, not just Japan. Look for green parks on Google Maps, especially named ones, if you're trying to find water fountains.

That tip doesn’t work in China (or at least Beijing and Shanghai). But bottled water is one or two kuai, and someone should be selling somewhere.

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

#179

Post by CydeWeys »

irq11 wrote: post #141
Kurtz79 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

Believe it or not, but even in Japan, vending machine prices are 2-3x what you’ll pay in a supermarket. You just don’t notice it as much because prices are low in general. A supermarket can coffee will cost maybe 60-100円 for what you pay 120-200円 in a vending machine.

I didn't find that to be true to such a degree.

I was tracking the prices of vending machines pretty closely in Japan, and if you didn't jump at the first one you saw and waited until a more out of the way one, you could typically find almost anything in the 100-120 yen range. My favorites were the "100 yen special" machines where most or all items were 100 yen. The prices were in large red lettering to emphasize the deal. Prices could go up to 160 yen or higher in the vending machines in tourist areas, especially the ones inside ticketed attractions.

100-120 yen was around the price you'd pay for those same drinks in a convenience or grocery store, with the only exception being bottled water. You can find bottled water much more cheaply in the grocery stores than anywhere else, well under half the price by volume. This is a pretty universal rule of travel that I've found holds true everywhere.

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

#180

Post by [deleted] »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #178
CydeWeys wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That tended to be the only place I found them, and yes, I definitely filled up my water bottles there. This tip tends to work for all countries, not just Japan. Look for green parks on Google Maps, especially named ones, if you're trying to find water fountains.

That tip doesn’t work in China (or at least Beijing and Shanghai). But bottled water is one or two kuai, and someone should be selling somewhere.

[deleted]
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