Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 84 posts

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#21

Post by ajb »

Interesting. 7-11 is one of the example's in Rumelt's book on strategies[1]. In the chapter on 'pivot points' (by his definition, areas where effort yields significant reward) he outlines that 7-11 focuses on different things in Japan vs China. In Japan, they believe that the customer is easily bored and requires their stores to stock many choices, and carefully track which are rising and falling in popularity in each area, to avoid them seeking out novelty at competing stores. In China, they focus on attracting customers by having Japanese-style "spotless interiors and white-gloved service", a much more pleasant experience that traditionally found in stores in China.

I was wondering what this said about the US customer. But it sounds like the US operation was just not as well run and needs to catch up.

[1] Good strategy, Bad Strategy, 2012

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#22

Post by throwup238 »

Loughla wrote: post #19
philip1209 wrote: post #9

7-11 in Japan is a way of life. I've been to an American 7-11 once or twice in my life. (I didn't want to go back.) In Japan, I went at least once daily - sometimes twice per day. They almost function the role of a NYC bodega, but with more and fresher food options. In addition, they often have a stack of microwaves run by the staff, allowing for inexpensive, fresh, and warm meals.

7-11 here in the States tends to be a great place to get stabbed and/or purchase illegal drugs, in my experience.

Here their parking lots are used to stage large illegal street racing competitions.

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#24

Post by forgetfreeman »

m463 wrote: post #2

A friend from Japan said 7-11 was an upscale store there. It features the top products in every category, and is maintained in an organized and clean japanese way.

I feel like the parent company is going to have an interesting time of it when convenience store wages collide with stocking and food prep processes more complicated than "load hotdog roller then studiously ignore for the entirety of shift", especially in the markets that are currently served by 7-11.

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#25

Post by greenthrow »

the__alchemist wrote: post #13

The video mentions at least twice that gas is one of the two main revenue sources of 7-11 in USA. A: How common is this? 7-11s don't serve gas where I've seen. B: Is this accurate re profits? My understanding was that gas stations make their money from the convenience store vice fuel. (This is in direct contradiction) Unrelated: Is it normal in marketing to refer to customers as "targets"? (See around 75% through the…

It's a commonly believed lie that gasoline is not profitable. It is the main profit center for all gas station chains.

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#26

Post by StanislavPetrov »

greenthrow wrote: post #25
the__alchemist wrote: post #13

The video mentions at least twice that gas is one of the two main revenue sources of 7-11 in USA. A: How common is this? 7-11s don't serve gas where I've seen. B: Is this accurate re profits? My understanding was that gas stations make their money from the convenience store vice fuel. (This is in direct contradiction) Unrelated: Is it normal in marketing to refer to customers as "targets"? (See around 75% through the…

It's a commonly believed lie that gasoline is not profitable. It is the main profit center for all gas station chains.

That may be true of chains, but for ~20 years a close family friend owned an independent gas station with a small convenience store and they made 4-5x more in the store than the ~1c per gallon of gas they sold. The margins on Soda, candy and cigarettes were absolutely massive.

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#27

Post by le-mark »

Loughla wrote: post #19
philip1209 wrote: post #9

7-11 in Japan is a way of life. I've been to an American 7-11 once or twice in my life. (I didn't want to go back.) In Japan, I went at least once daily - sometimes twice per day. They almost function the role of a NYC bodega, but with more and fresher food options. In addition, they often have a stack of microwaves run by the staff, allowing for inexpensive, fresh, and warm meals.

7-11 here in the States tends to be a great place to get stabbed and/or purchase illegal drugs, in my experience.

7-11 used to have really great fresh brewed coffee. It been about 10 years since I moved and no longer go there. But it used to be the best gas station coffee around imo.

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#28

Post by Graziano_M »

philip1209 wrote: post #9

7-11 in Japan is a way of life. I've been to an American 7-11 once or twice in my life. (I didn't want to go back.) In Japan, I went at least once daily - sometimes twice per day. They almost function the role of a NYC bodega, but with more and fresher food options. In addition, they often have a stack of microwaves run by the staff, allowing for inexpensive, fresh, and warm meals.

When I was there last I had an egg salad sandwich almost every day.

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#29

Post by mlinhares »

Klonoar wrote: post #6
TulliusCicero wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7-11 and convenience stores in general in Japan (the other big ones are Lawson and Family Mart) are vastly superior to American offerings. Almost every American who goes to Japan seems to comment on this.

It's not just Japan, it's largely Asia in general (e.g, Taiwanese 7-11's and Korean 7-11's are also so far above their US counterparts in terms of offerings/feel). (A fun trivia fact is that like 7-11, Lawson also originally started in the USA. They only recently-ish returned stateside with locations in Hawaii (IIRC).)

I'd be surprised if there is any place where 7-11 is worse than in the US given how bad they are in here. Having lived most of my US time in PA I always either drove longer or waited for a Wawa to shop because all 7-11s were pure garbage.

Re: 7-Eleven is reinventing its food business to be more Japanese [video]

#30

Post by Klonoar »

sho_hn wrote: post #20
Klonoar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just Japan, it's largely Asia in general (e.g, Taiwanese 7-11's and Korean 7-11's are also so far above their US counterparts in terms of offerings/feel). (A fun trivia fact is that like 7-11, Lawson also originally started in the USA. They only recently-ish returned stateside with locations in Hawaii (IIRC).)

I'd say in Korea 7-11 is the worst of the top 3 options though (GS25, CU and 7-11)

I mean, sure. I don't even think 7-11 is the top in Japan, but this is all opinion (ish).

My only real point was that they are categorically above their US counterparts, and that it's not just a Japan-specific thing.

Post reply on HN