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Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

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Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#101

Post by MisterTea »

RigelKentaurus wrote: post #6

On our last couple of Japan trips, we would walk into 7/11s for an inexpensive coffee, an egg or fruit sandwich, and also do some treasure-hunting for co-branded items with Muji/Uniqlo or others. It became a short and meaningful part of our routine. We loved the convenient locations and fantastic service at all their stores. Well done, Suzuki-san!

On my trip there with a group of friends we would wake up and head to the local 7-11/Lawson/Family Mart. Even when we went into the countryside for the hot spring baths in Hokkaido there was a Lawson in town. 7-11 had the best food though. I loved those chicken teriyaki egg sandwiches, onigiri and the yakisoba-pan. But those chocolate swirl babkas were clutch. I once wandered in late night and cleared the shelf of them.

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#102

Post by GuinansEyebrows »

charcircuit wrote: post #79
m0llusk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The waste generated is also a major challenge. Having fresh food always ready means trashing a lot of meals. In the US there are networks of food banks and such, but it can still be difficult to keep up with the flow of unpurchased food that is no longer fresh.

You can just throw food in the garbage.

hey, this is actually Not Good

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#103

Post by wat10000 »

criddell wrote: post #96
m463 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in 7/11 in the US and they sell egg sandwiches. coincidence?

Did you try one? Egg sandwiches really aren't my thing but I've always wondered if the US version comes close to the quality of the Japanese version even if some of the details (like presence of bread crust) differ.

An egg sandwich is not the sort of thing I'd trust from 7-11. I'd be thinking of that Futurama episode with the worms the whole time I was eating it.

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#104

Post by AtlasBarfed »

adventured wrote: post #50
rjh29 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are expensive by Japanese standards. Assuming you're American, you're benefitting massively from the exchange rate.

It's not the exchange rate. It's 30 years of economic destruction and currency devaluation as the end result of horrific spending policies. If Japan doesn't right the ship, they'll sink into middle income territory over the next 30 years. Poland and Greece are now just slightly below them in GDP per capita - and Lithuania is above them (unthinkable circa the mid 1990s). Realistically Japan is very close to being a se…

Aren't in late stage techno consumerist demographic collapse that many others (Germany, China, yeesh, South Korea) aren't going to suffer from to an even worse degree?

I guess one could point to various policies, especially with pseudo- protectionist benefits given to the Japanese mega conglomerates, which like in Korea are kind of just an extension of the government.

But I wonder if such economic policy fumbling is in an evil outgrowth as people try to deal with the underlying collapse.

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#105

Post by AtlasBarfed »

satvikpendem wrote: post #9

I wonder how 7/11 in the US will change now that the Japanese version bought out the US version. Will we actually have hot and prepared food like Japan? I doubt it, seems the supply chain infrastructure just isn't there.

It's not like the corner store isn't a thing in places like New York and Chicago.

Is that sector ripe for consolidation?

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#106

Post by Klonoar »

klausa wrote: post #80
Klonoar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conbini meals only register as "high quality" to you because your comparison point (e.g, American 7-11) is an abysmal excuse for food. The food is, in reality, not that special.

This hot take, along with the "oh you can get better chicken than FamiChiki almost anywhere in Japan", drives me _nuts_, even as I live in Tokyo. Yes! There are better options available if I want to sit down for a meal, or even just wait for a couple of minutes for someone to fry me a piece of chicken to order. That's _not the point_! Both the SEJ meals, and FamiChiki, are _fantastic_ for what they are — available in…

> This hot take

It is not a hot take. I lived in Japan for quite some number of years and I'm back there regularly for work and to see friends. I know what I am talking about.

You live in Tokyo, you know damn well that you can receive silent judgement for being "that guy" who mostly eats at the conbini.

> But if you compare them with convenience store meals available elsewhere in the world (especially in the broadly understood West), they still _are_ pretty damn special.

What part of my original comment flew over your head? We said the same thing.

They are not that special when judged on merit.

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#107

Post by stephenhuey »

ssl-3 wrote: post #28
satvikpendem wrote: post #9

I wonder how 7/11 in the US will change now that the Japanese version bought out the US version. Will we actually have hot and prepared food like Japan? I doubt it, seems the supply chain infrastructure just isn't there.

As others have mentioned, 7/11 in the US has been owned by 7/11 (Japan) for quite a long time, now. There's some important organizational differences: Stores in Japan are almost entirely franchisee-operated, while stores in the US are more-or-less split 50% on being franchises or corpo. It's hard to draw conclusions when they're shaped so differently. But I can say this: Speedway is a large US chain of gas station/co…

As someone who remembered 7/11 commercials as a kid in Texas in in the 80s, I thought they had completely died out in the USA until I spent a summer at a university in Mexico and there was a local 7/11 which was surprisingly nice. But unless they up their game in the USA, I see all the typical gas stations we grew up with as fading due to changing standards. Buc-ee's started in a tiny Texan town where some relatives live and now stretches from Colorado to Virginia to Florida. In addition to the vast amenities, including delicious fresh barbecue and salads, they have clean bathrooms and treat employees well. There's no going back (I hope), and I'm surprised they're not in California yet, though I guess California has stuff like EddieWorld. I recognize that this leaves an opportunity for smaller gas stations to try to improve to offer good-enough service since Buc-ee's focuses on larger stores, but my hope is that the elevated standards will trickle down to forcing smaller ones to raise standards. Seems like 7/11 would be well-positioned to adopt that strategy to become that dominant smaller store, if they're paying attention.

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#108

Post by wahnfrieden »

rjh29 wrote: post #53
adventured wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the exchange rate. It's 30 years of economic destruction and currency devaluation as the end result of horrific spending policies. If Japan doesn't right the ship, they'll sink into middle income territory over the next 30 years. Poland and Greece are now just slightly below them in GDP per capita - and Lithuania is above them (unthinkable circa the mid 1990s). Realistically Japan is very close to being a se…

7/11 is still 30-50% more expensive than the supermarkets, so irrespective of how affluent people are, it's a poor choice. I used 'exchange rate' because not only is the yen weak, but the USD seems pretty strong - I guess it depends on where in the US you are from, but as a Brit, US feels expensive to me, Japan feels cheap, ergo Americans must find Japan even cheaper than I do.

I think tourists just don't know the names of grocery stores, don't see them on social media, and don't expect them to have essentially all the same items as convenience stores (and in even greater variety) because ones back home have disappointing prepared and packaged foods. They also just don't care about wasting money when it already feels cheap.

Unrelated but another tip unknown to tourists is to get cold drinks (even alcohol) at pharmacies instead of convenience stores: their beverage fridges tend to be set much colder.

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#109

Post by ginko »

rjh29 wrote: post #41
ssl-3 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this waste dealt with in Japan? Why can't whatever-that-is be implemented in the US?

Badly. Until a few years ago there was a franchise-wide rule that no food could be discounted even if it was close to expiry, so either the staff/owners bought them and ate it themselves, or it went in the dumpster. Giving expired food to homeless people is not really a thing there either.

South Korea has extremely strict food waste laws and a pretty well developed systems of convenience stores. I wonder how things are handled there.

Re: Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died

#110

Post by Ferret7446 »

movedx wrote: post #95
59percentmore wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIUC Japanese budgets are different. They spend comparatively less on housing and transportation than Americans. The Anglosphere in general has somehow developed a rather toxic status quo when it comes to that first basic need, with everything else only being slightly cheaper. I would rather pay 15% more on goods and 30% less on rent.

> I would rather pay 15% more on goods and 30% less on rent. Exactly. Housing and the housing market in Japan is an interesting beast. Based on my limited understanding as someone who has sort-of briefly looked at buying a home in Japan, houses are not really financial investments. For example, compare house prices in Japan (including the land) with a house in Australia.

Indeed, Japanese houses are designed to be disposable. Likely a result of them being built historically out of wood and paper and the abundance of wood.
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