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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

#41

Post by rjh29 »

ssl-3 wrote: post #20
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.

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.

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

#42

Post by AznHisoka »

arjie wrote: post #18

The local stores in Japan and Taiwan are really nice. 7/11 and Family Mart are these pleasant places where you can see schoolchildren sitting chatting and eating. That’s not something you’d see in San Francisco. You’ll see adults with children sometimes at Whole Foods, which is nice, but unattended children not so much.

I’ve seen little children take the subway alone in Japan. Its a completely different environment

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

#43

Post by rjh29 »

Klonoar wrote: post #27
dreamcompiler wrote: post #16

I almost never go to a 7/11 in the US but every time I go to Japan I visit a 7/11 at least once a day. No matter where you are in Japan there's likely a 7/11 within walking distance and besides the usual assortment of drinks and snacks you can get quick full meals there of high quality. https://thisis-japan.com/7-eleven-japan-guide-2025/

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.

The first few years in Japan I loved combini food because of the novelty. Then you realise it's still processed crap loaded with chemicals and usually nutritionally poor (lots of rice, very little veg or protein) barely better than supermarket "ready meals" (or bento/souzai) and more expensive.

It's the honeymoon effect I guess.

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

#45

Post by ssl-3 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #35
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?

It can, but probably not in advance. It wouldn't make much sense to develop infrastructure around a source of rapidly-expiring food before that source existed. But once the food is there, demand for it will quickly develop. There's a general theme in policy discussions of people saying "system X has a feature that system Y does not have; therefore, moving from system Y to system X must require a fully-developed auxil…

That's kind of what I was leaning towards. It's a problem that needs solved, but it's not necessarily hard to solve, nor does it need solved in advance.

It's the kind of problem can often very nearly resolve itself.

Here in the States, I've seen what can happen at the end of the night at a busy Little Ceasers in a not-great part of town. They've got a lot of unsold pizzas, already boxed, that they simply need to get rid of so they can close up and go home.

So they walk out the back door with armloads of pizzas and... casually give them away to the people who are waiting out there. It's a very calm and surprisingly tidy process that goes by quickly. This happens at the same time every night.

The only apparent cost is whatever it takes to maintain the base amount of humility required to let this happen instead of dutifully marching the pizzas over to the dumpster and tossing them in.

This routine is almost certainly an invention of evolution, instead of planning.

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

#46

Post by vkou »

AznHisoka wrote: post #42
arjie wrote: post #18

The local stores in Japan and Taiwan are really nice. 7/11 and Family Mart are these pleasant places where you can see schoolchildren sitting chatting and eating. That’s not something you’d see in San Francisco. You’ll see adults with children sometimes at Whole Foods, which is nice, but unattended children not so much.

I’ve seen little children take the subway alone in Japan. Its a completely different environment

Or walk home from school, or the playground, or wherever they are going from, through the middle of what in any NA city would be described as 'downtown', and would get CPS dispatched on speed-dial.

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

#47

Post by ssl-3 »

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.

If that works (badly) in Japan, then why can't it work (just as badly) in the US?

What new impediment does the geography bring to the table?

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

#48

Post by tomhow »

firefax wrote: post #7

I ate a lot 7/11 onigiri as a poor grad student exploring Tokyo on a long layover once... they're truly wonderful little stores. (They also are one of the few places you can use an ATM, very useful given how cash based Japan is) He can be proud of the legacy he built, which is something many American founders cannot say with a straight face. Rest in power sir.

> He can be proud of the legacy he built, which is something many American founders cannot say with a straight face.

Please don't use an obituary to make a nationalistic swipe on HN.

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

#49

Post by rjh29 »

ssl-3 wrote: post #47
rjh29 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If that works (badly) in Japan, then why can't it work (just as badly) in the US? What new impediment does the geography bring to the table?

I was merely answering your question about how Japan deals with it (by trashing it, mostly). I guess the US could do that but unlike Japan, I'd expect people to break into the dumpsters and steal the food out of it. The trashing of food might offend people more in the US.

In terms of geography though, Japan has an extremely efficient and well developed cold chain and the country is pretty much a line from north to south. The US is clearly more spread out and significantly larger than Japan. That causes problems with both delivering the food to stores and (as other people have mentioned) efficiently moving waste to food banks.

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

#50

Post by adventured »

rjh29 wrote: post #39
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!

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 second tier economy. It's quite plausible that Croatia and Latvia will pass them on GDP per capita over the next decade. 7-11 Japan would be relatively inexpensive for the citizens of any affluent nation, because Japan is so much poorer than it used to be.

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