[HN Gopher] Tokyo's 7-Elevens and convenience stores
___________________________________________________________________
Tokyo's 7-Elevens and convenience stores
Author : thunderbong
Score : 124 points
Date : 2021-08-08 08:27 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.latimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.latimes.com)
| sonofajojo wrote:
| Asian 711 is so good they sing about it.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOF9E2WirfE
| MisterSandman wrote:
| Surprised to see Higher Brothers show up on Hacker News.
|
| For what it's worth, Travis Thompson (a Navajo rapper from
| Seattle) also recently came out with a song called 7-11:
| https://youtu.be/eeF8Fu8oKQA
| another_story wrote:
| Is that a Sichuan accent?
| freetime2 wrote:
| Recently someone asked me what I liked most about living in
| Japan. I thought for a minute, and then answered "convenience
| stores".
|
| It was a bit of a joke answer - there are plenty of other things
| I could say, but I didn't really want to get into the cultural
| differences between Japan and the United States or anything like
| that.
|
| But there is some truth to it, too. Convenience stores in Japan
| are better than the US in just about every way. And I visit them
| so frequently (twice today, for example) that they really do have
| a pretty significant impact on my life.
|
| Usually I go in with a specific purpose in mind and I can be in
| and out in under a minute. But other times I'll go in with a more
| vague idea of what I want ("snacks for a road trip" or "booze")
| and I'm always surprised and delighted to find something new and
| interesting on the shelf.
|
| An example of something interesting that my son picked out today
| is this "colorful ice cream shop" snack [1]. It comes with
| various trays and powders that you mix with water to make "ice
| cream" (it's not actually frozen, though) - complete with 3
| flavors of ice cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and 4 cones
| that you shape yourself and cook in the microwave. I was
| expecting my son to choose a lollipop or something, but this
| turned out to be surprisingly fun and tasty.
|
| [1] https://www.kracie.co.jp/products/foods/10162929_21123.html
| scarygliders wrote:
| A part of me thinks the article title should have been "When in
| Japan, forget..." (I realise it's in the context of the
| Olympics).
|
| Konbinis are great and I miss them from when I lived there. The
| food is... convenient... and extremely tasty but I wouldn't like
| to live day-to-day off it.
|
| Better to go to one of the many, many restaurants and ramen
| joints that are throughout the whole of Japan if you feel like a
| bite to eat whilst out and about.
|
| Especially local eateries in small towns - they can be hidden
| gems. We once went to a local cafe and I ordered a rice and
| chicken katsu curry dish which when it arrived could have fed
| three people the serving was that huge. It was also delicious. ;)
| anthk wrote:
| Izakayas?
| yadaeno wrote:
| If you want to save yourself a couple minutes just look up a
| picture of 711 in Japan.
|
| "You can find dinner there and it will be a top-notch dinner."
|
| Yea, I don't know about that. You can find much higher quality,
| cheaper bento at other stores, although the onigiri is nice in a
| pinch.
| ekianjo wrote:
| top notch dinner lol. you can eat lunch very well in Japan for
| usually cheaper than in convenience stores. its not like there
| is a lack of options indeed.
| rootsudo wrote:
| It's nifty if the grocery is far, or you're in the inaka.
|
| And it's like 2am, lol, I prefer 7-11 over lawsons anyday.
| minikomi wrote:
| Lawson has the best deserts
| jbay808 wrote:
| I picked up some ice cream there once, probably the best
| ice cream I've ever eaten. It was completely unflavoured
| ice cream -- not vanilla -- and really amazing and
| subtle. Since then I've searched for other "just milk"
| ice creams, like Fior di Latte and so on, but they
| usually end up overpoweringly sweet and none have come
| close to that amazingly simple one in Japan from a small
| town Lawson's.
|
| Unfortunately it was probably a limited run regional item
| and I don't expect I'd be able to find it again, even if
| I went back to the very same Lawson's.
| uranusjr wrote:
| Lawson has better karaage, and fried chicken tastes best at
| 2am.
| tasogare wrote:
| American opinion on food: automatically discarded.
|
| This is a simple heuristic I live with.
| emodendroket wrote:
| I remember I used to get the pasta all the time and then the
| last time I went back to Japan I tried it again and it was one
| of those "why did I ever like this?" moments. May of the
| options at the convenience store aren't bad but "top-notch" is
| a little absurd.
| post_break wrote:
| I love 711 in the US. They tend to be clean compared to other
| stores. They post the prices. Stores that don't have prices I
| walk right out.
| jdlyga wrote:
| I've been to Tokyo 7-Elevens, but the 7-Elevens in China are just
| as good if not better. There's so much fresh food and healthy
| snacks. When I was in Beijing, we usually got breakfast from the
| 7-Eleven across from the hotel each morning.
| rootsudo wrote:
| And no mention that 7-11 bought out the USA company and is now
| japanese
|
| Interesting paid sponsership.
| new299 wrote:
| Ito-Yokado bought out 7-11, they were previously running the
| Japanese franchise, they also run supermarkets in Japan. But
| yes, the US 7-11s are now owned by a Japanese company.
| Frost1x wrote:
| That may explain some of the recent improvements in quality
| in the stores I've noticed.
|
| It's not a lot, but a few items like having fresh ground
| coffee is a welcome sight when traveling as opposed to
| warmers of coffee prepared by someone who doesn't care that
| likely have been sitting for hours.
| new299 wrote:
| The acquisition happened in 1991 so it's not a new thing.
|
| I'm really curious to understand how the relationship works
| though. And wonder if the US operations are largely
| independent or not.
| wiseguy317 wrote:
| 7-Eleven US was bought by the Japanese parent in 2005 out
| of bankruptcy.
| new299 wrote:
| There was some structuring in 2005. But Ito Yokado
| acquired majority control in 1991.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_%26_I_Holdings
|
| https://apnews.com/article/d5e836d5edac5600bbf626c97d8a2d
| a3
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| > But yes, the US 7-11s are now owned by a Japanese company.
|
| Corporate 7-11 is owned by a Japanese company, most 7-11s in
| the states are franchises owned very locally.
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| Korean convenience stores were pretty good. I wouldn't say life
| changing but the snack selection is good.
| bsaul wrote:
| the fact that an american reporter think konbini meals are "top
| notch" tells as much about the quality of food in japan as about
| the quality of food in the US
| wccrawford wrote:
| It's a meme by this point, and lazy bloggers keep going back to
| it.
|
| My wife and I went to Japan, and while the convenience store
| food was good and there were lots of options, it still wasn't
| up to restaurant food quality. I was actually disappointed
| after hearing people rave about it for years before we went.
|
| OTOH, some of our best memories were from restaurants that
| rarely get foreigners, or not at all. I knew just enough
| Japanese to get my point across, and watched their faces light
| up when they realized I spoke _any Japanese at all_ was always
| fun and heart-warming.
|
| My favorite story: We went to a small restaurant in a mall.
| Aqua City mall, IIRC. (May have been Diver City mall, though.)
| When my wife ordered something off the menu, the waitress held
| her hands together and then stretched them out horizontally and
| said, "Eee-aa". She repeated that a couple times, and I
| realized she was saying "Eel" in English. I turned my wife wife
| and said, "Unagi. It's got unagi in it." My wife nodded and we
| turned back and the waitress had a very shocked look on her
| face that we'd understand the word "unagi" and used it over
| "eel".
|
| Now, that's a pretty common word in the US if you eat much
| sushi now, but it was still a lot of fun to see her shock.
| Frost1x wrote:
| It's a distinct memory that stayed with me when visiting Japan
| for the first time. One of the first places I went after the
| train from Narita to my Shinjuku hotel was a 7/11 to use the
| ATM and pickup local currency. When I walked in, I walked back
| out because I assumed I went in the wrong door. No, it was in
| fact a 7/11. I ended up buying some small meal and coffee (with
| a barista preparing it) because I was so shocked that it looked
| like a decent quality, albeit small, grocery store, so I wanted
| to give it a try.
|
| The coffee was just great no matter where you go. The food was
| ok, it wasn't anything I'd go out of my way to have but was so
| much better than anything you'd find in a US convenience store.
| I wanted to sample it but didn't want to waste my food
| adventure too much on convenience store food.
| [deleted]
| ilamont wrote:
| Taiwan's 7-11s go much further than selling great snacks and
| drinks. You can buy high-speed train tickets, drop off packages,
| and file certain types of official paperwork. Once I bought
| professional baseball tickets there.
| presentation wrote:
| You can do that in the Japanese ones too!
| skhr0680 wrote:
| Pretty amazing that someone can rave so much about konbinis and
| not mention that next to their fridge of cold drinks they will
| inevitably have an equally large or larger fridge of cheap booze,
| sold at all hours.
| OJFord wrote:
| The America you're implicitly contrasting that too is more the
| odd one out there than Japan, globally.
| pessimizer wrote:
| In Chicago, the 7-11 on my corner doesn't just have beer and
| wine, it has whiskey and vodka.
| OJFord wrote:
| But has a curfew on sales right? Or are you saying it's
| state dependent and - err.. Illinois? - is more lax?
|
| Every supermarket, convenience store, petrol station, etc.
| sells beer, wine, whisky, vodka, whatever, around the clock
| here. So I just meant that that's not 'wow Japan', (I'm in
| the UK, but it's true of most of Europe too IME) it's 'wow
| outside America' - or 'my state' etc. depending per first
| paragraph.
| chiph wrote:
| Yes, alcohol sales are set by the individual state (and
| sometimes county) in the US. Here in North Carolina, you
| can buy beer & wine in a restaurant, supermarket, movie
| theater, etc. (subject to licensing and state Blue Laws
| [0] governing times when they can be sold), but hard
| liquor is sold in a state-run Alcohol Beverage Control
| [1] store. When you hear the phrase "Dry County" that's a
| county which does not allow alcohol sales at all [2].
| Today, North Carolina has just one dry county - Graham,
| near the Tennessee border.
|
| So if you live near a state border it's not uncommon to
| do your alcohol shopping in the adjacent state if the
| laws and taxes there are more lax. But there can be
| personal-consumption transportation limits, which if you
| exceed you can be charged with bootlegging [3].
|
| Story time: There is a discount liquor store in South
| Carolina just across the state line, south of the city of
| Charlotte. Many years ago the North Carolina ABC
| department sent an agent to sit in their parking lot and
| radio the license plates of cars that had large alcohol
| purchases to fellow agents waiting along the highway.
| Those agents would pull those cars over and charge the
| drivers with bootlegging. The South Carolina highway
| patrol took offense to this impingement on their
| authority and sent a couple officers to discuss matters
| with the ABC agent, and explain to him how he did not
| have jurisdiction in their state, and to please go home
| now.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law [1]
| https://abc.nc.gov/ [2]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_county [3]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum-running
| OJFord wrote:
| I've missed the edit window; sorry but I can't help but
| comment on my typo - to* - having noticed it.
| robjan wrote:
| In Hong Kong we call it Club 7/11
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| Depending on the state you're in, it is pretty common to have
| beer and wine of various levels of "cheap" at a convenience
| store in the US.
| konbini wrote:
| konbinigaHao ki
| cududa wrote:
| Good puff piece, but here's a great counter on a 7-Eleven
| franchisee in Japan taking a day off to care for his wife with
| cancer, so to punish him they built a corporate owned 7-Eleven in
| his parking lot.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/business/japan-7-eleven.h...
|
| " Inside the war between a very powerful company and a very
| stubborn franchisee, complete with threats, spies and videotape."
| antsam wrote:
| I love going to konbini whenever I'm in Japan but do yourself a
| favour and don't go to one for every meal. If you want a bento or
| some small dishes, there are lots of good and affordable ones at
| the grocery stores and department stores. They even discount them
| by quite a lot near closing time. Check the basement or top
| floors of the major train stations as well.
|
| There's lots of good restaurants as well all over the place and
| even at the top floor of many Yodabashi (a giant electronics
| chain). Don't be afraid of places that don't have any English
| signage, you can usually request an English menu or see if they
| can just recommend you a good dish if you're adventurous.
|
| If you're hopping onboard the Shinkansen (bullet train), grab
| yourself an ekiben at the station before you go, lots of
| delicious regional dishes to try out!
| madaxe_again wrote:
| It's also not a bad idea for your _first_ meal in Japan, as
| unless something has changed, recently, they have the only ATMs
| that work with foreign cards - you're outta luck getting cash
| anywhere else.
| Aeolun wrote:
| I think, the first time you are in Japan, you can absolutely go
| to the conbini for a meal.
|
| Compared to what you get outside of Japan it'll be fantastic.
|
| Once you start eating out at other places you won't be able to
| go back to conbini food anymore (especially once you realize
| the price is basically the same).
| cheschire wrote:
| It took me a few reads to realize you were saying the Japanese
| write/say "convenience store" as "konbini"
|
| Reminds me of the sarariman I first read about in Neuromancer.
|
| Loan words are interesting micro insight into culture.
| skhr0680 wrote:
| I am fond of Pasokon for PC and Super for supermarket
| serdar wrote:
| I like this one I heard in the movie Close-Knit: "rabureta"
| (rabureta) from English "love letter".
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| It's hilarious to this English speaker.
|
| My mind was blown when I realized the same had been done with
| the Japanese word "mamachari" -- that is, a popular bicycle
| for women that allow them to carry a child and grocery bag.
| sneak wrote:
| Pokemon is "pocket monster".
| effingwewt wrote:
| And now we in the US have stupid restaurants like Poke Land
| which would be pocket land, but they thought it related to
| Pokemon. And it's just a shitty overpriced FoTM.
|
| So now we have double-borrowed words. By the time it gets
| back to Japan it will be something like Land-Land and will
| mean something different again like monsters.
|
| Pretty amazing.
| austinprete wrote:
| I don't know the specific place you're referring to, but
| at least all the restaurants I know of with Poke in the
| name are referring to Hawaiian Poke [1]. Although it's
| influenced by Japanese cuisine, it has absolutely nothing
| to do with Pokemon.
|
| 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poke_(Hawaiian_dish)
| jacquesm wrote:
| Adidasy and Junckers in Polish were - are? - terms for
| sneakers and gas fired water heaters.
| fartingflamingo wrote:
| To stay within the food sphere, how about "kapsalon"[0] in
| Poland? Popular fast food created in the Netherlands in 2003.
| "kapsalon" is Dutch for "hairdressing salon". Etymologically,
| it can be tracked to a man who always asked for "the usual
| for the hair dresser".
|
| Polish workers took the name home and it's now not an
| uncommon sight in Poland [1], amongst other places.
|
| P.S. Don't eat it. It is disgustingly fat and unhealthy...
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapsalon [1]
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=kapsalon+site%3A.pl
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| "...1,800 kilocalories in a large serving" !
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| Eat two pints of ice cream (2K cal) and nobody bats an
| eye, but eat a large serving of kapsalon and everybody
| loses their minds.
| jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote:
| The Japanese writing system uses three different character
| sets. Loan words are generally always written using one of
| these three sets, "katakana". Learning how to properly read
| and write Japanese will take years, but I highly encourage
| anyone visiting to at least learn how to read the 48 katakana
| (entirely phonetic). It's relatively low effort for the value
| it adds to your trip. Many of the Japanese loan words are of
| English origin, meaning you'll effectively be able to read
| some Japanese and understand it which can be very satisfying,
| useful, and hilarious.
| dkdbejwi383 wrote:
| My favourite is arubaito (Arubaito) for part-time job, from
| the German "arbeit" (to work)
| rkachowski wrote:
| I tried to learn Japanese by sheer force of effort and
| managed to make "do-eet-su" stick in my mind to mean
| "German". It was years later that the penny dropped and i
| realized it was just "Deutsch" transliterated.
| ehnto wrote:
| I agree, I thought learning spoken phrases would be the way
| to go when I first visited, and it certainly helped with
| the basic stuff like restaurants and saying
| please/thankyou.
|
| But knowing how to read the alphabets would have helped a
| lot more, because there are so many very understandable
| things sitting right infront of you if only you knew how to
| read the characters. konbiniensu seems impenetrable if you
| don't know the alphabet, but it's just the adapted word for
| "Convenience": Konbiniensu.
|
| Duolingo copped a lot of flack here in a recent thread, but
| it was great for initially learning the alphabets, it took
| nearly no time to memorize Katakana and Hiragana. If you
| don't know the alphabet you can't even begin to try and
| learn the language in situ, so that's step one and a huge
| help when travelling.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| Minor nit: the kana are not alphabets, they're
| syllabaries. Each character represents a complete
| syllable (except n/n) as opposed to representing a
| consonant or vowel sound.
|
| They are really straight-forward to learn as, unlike in
| English, they don't have di and trigraphs and extremely
| few pronunciation exceptions. Learning the characters can
| be done in an afternoon, though of course being able to
| read them quickly will take quite a bit of practice.
| ehnto wrote:
| That makes sense! Not having variations based on
| neighbors is a very nice simplicity to have, except for
| the lengthening and doubling symbols.
| chrismaeda wrote:
| Conbini are great.
|
| I'm addicted to the relatively new coffee machines. You get a
| made-to-order coffee for the price of a vending machine coffee.
| And now that Suntory owns Jim Beam, you can buy bourbon in every
| conbini to fortify your coffee.
|
| Family Mart has the best fried chicken ("famichiki").
|
| We once used google translate to tell us the different flavors of
| rice balls and were shocked when one came up as "spicy child".
| Japanese friends explained that this was actually mentaiko or
| spicy fish eggs.
|
| Finally, I resisted the oden by the cash register for years but
| finally ate it when we were stuck at a bus stop with a long line.
| Delicious.
| kazinator wrote:
| Interesting facts here.
|
| 7-Elevens in Japan are owned by a company called Seven & I
| Holdings:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_%26_I_Holdings
|
| The USA 7-Eleven chain is a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings!
|
| This is because in the early 1990's, the American 7-Eleven was
| facing bankruptcy. The Japanese one wasn't, and acquired them to
| bail them out.
|
| So if you walk into a 7-Eleven in the USA, you are in a Japanese
| 7-Eleven, albeit one that continues to be run in the American
| style. Just like a Panasonic microwave oven in North America
| looks nothing like a Japanese microwave oven.
| RyJones wrote:
| Sadly, the 7-Eleven US loyalty card key fob doesn't work in
| Japan.
| j7ake wrote:
| It's not really specific to Tokyo or even Japan but true for most
| major Asian cities that 7-11 convenience stores actually have
| decent food (hot, savoury, decent tasting).
|
| Taking a step back the reason in my opinion is that the standards
| for hot, good tasting foods is in general higher in Asian
| cultures compared to many other western countries. Munching on a
| cold sandwich just isn't traditionally seen as a proper meal in
| Asia.
| holdenc wrote:
| Nice, but Taiwan has the best 7-11's. Take a look:
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/place/%E6%9A%97%E9%BB%91%E5%B0%8...
| kinghtown wrote:
| I live in Hsinchu, about 20 minutes from this 7-11. This is
| probably the only nice looking one in the city and not an
| average. 99.9% of 7-11s in Taiwan are consistently as ugly as
| 7-11s in North America. When I visited Tokyo, the convenience
| store experience is shockingly good. In Taiwan, I actually much
| prefer Hi-Life or Family Mart over 7-11. 7-11 in Taiwan is
| still better than the ones from back home but Japan has ruined
| convenience stores for me. I wish Lawson would come to Taiwan.
|
| On a side note: paying for a bill or picking up a parcel at a
| convenience store is great.. until you are the one waiting in
| line behind someone doing both.
| philliphaydon wrote:
| While I prefer Family Mart in Taiwan. I really don't find
| much difference between 7-11 in Japan vs Taiwan, both are
| great. But Singapore, oh man 7-11 in Singapore is terrible
| compared to Taiwan/Japan. Still better than anything in the
| west tho!
| ValentineC wrote:
| > But Singapore, oh man 7-11 in Singapore is terrible
| compared to Taiwan/Japan.
|
| 7-Eleven in Singapore is operated by a Hong Kong
| conglomerate that also has the licence(?) to operate in
| Hong Kong and China [1].
|
| If we're just talking about convenience food, IMO 7-Eleven
| still has a better selection than its other competitor,
| Cheers [2], which is owned and operated by Singapore's
| government-controlled trade union confederation [3].
|
| [1] https://www.dairyfarmgroup.com/en-US/Our-
| Businesses/Convenie...
|
| [2] https://www.fairprice.com.sg/our-retail-formats/
|
| [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Trades_Union_Con
| gress
| Danieru wrote:
| That is indeed a fancy building, but the product selection is
| poor. Notice how all the shown food is prepacked low shelf life
| snacks.
|
| Japan's domestics convivence stores strength is in their supply
| chains. They will keep a single shop stocked with over a
| thousand products, many with short self lifes and low in-store
| stock. Thus the stores survive on daily restock. The bento and
| sandwich collection will stocked once a day in most locations,
| multiple times for busy downtown locations.
|
| All of the short shelf life products are store label products
| made by child-companies of the owning mega-corp.
|
| 7-11 is owned by 7 & i holdings, which also owns Ito Yokado.
| FamliyMart is owned by Itochu (hence their prime chicken, as
| itochu owns the chiken farms). Lawson is owned by Mitsubishi
| Co.
|
| A fun example to drive home the vertical integration:
| FamilyMart's uniforms are made by another company owned by
| Itochu. The kombini are in effect the tip of the icebergs of
| various mega-corps.
| biztos wrote:
| My nearest convenience store in Bangkok is a FamilyMart, but
| sadly: not have chicken.
| armchairhacker wrote:
| Related, check out small asian markets in the US. There are at
| least 2 relatively big ones near where I am now.
|
| They have some high-quality food, cheap food, and food you won't
| find anywhere else. In particular I go for tofu skins (sheets
| which are a lot like tofu but much firmer). They don't have
| things in traditional convenience stores, really only asian
| foods. But you won't find these foods at supermarkets.
| xyzzy21 wrote:
| Yes. It's the same throughout East Asia excepting China.
|
| I lived in Taiwan for several years and 7-11, Family Mart, et al.
| pretty much are the one-stop-shop that the internet tries to be
| here in America. But it does it far better.
|
| * You can pay all your bills at them
|
| * You can get train and plane tickets at them
|
| * You can receive packages at them
|
| * You can eat decent food at them 24x7
|
| * You can get alcohol 24x7 (if you live on the West Coast USA
| this isn't so obvious - many states highly restrict alcohol sales
| hours and selection)
|
| * You can get any of these usually only a block or three walking
| distance from anywhere you might live in any city or town - they
| are ubiquitous and truly convenient
| davidjytang wrote:
| I'm sure I'm also missing lots of things but a small
| correction:
|
| * You can receive AND SEND packages there DOMESTIC AND
| INTERNATIONAL.
|
| Also These couple of years,
|
| * You get govt-rationed masks there during mask shortage.
|
| * You make appointment for Covid vaccine there.
| wombatmobile wrote:
| So civilised. They clean the toilets 10 times a day.
| jbay808 wrote:
| I find Japanese convenience store washrooms are about on par
| with the ones in fancy hotels in Canada!
| noisy_boy wrote:
| I like to joke that if you place correctly angled mirrors in
| 7-11s in Thailand (or just seven as they call it), a single beam
| of light shined at the first one should be able to traverse the
| whole country. I am only half joking though - they really have
| that many.
| sho wrote:
| > just seven as they call it
|
| Ha. It's always a milestone in an expat's life in thailand when
| they just give in and start saying "seven" too. It took me
| about a year.
|
| I have 5 within a 5-minute walk of my condo in Ploenchit, and
| if that isn't enough, there's 2 large vending machines too.
| It's actually kind of shocking to see them closed during the
| lockdown.
| biztos wrote:
| I believe this is possible!
|
| Between my condo and my mall (a five-minute walk in Khlong San)
| there are two Sewen, one on each side of the street, and then
| of course the very first shop in the mall is... Sewen.
| another_story wrote:
| Aside from Macau, I think Taiwan may have Japan beat for 7-11
| density.
| dragonelite wrote:
| When i was in Cebu it was almost like on every corner you could
| find a 7/11 or a jollybee :p
| sirn wrote:
| There's a small village on a top of a mountain in Northern
| Thailand called Santi Khiri. Most Thai probably never have
| heard of its name or known of its existence (it has a very
| interesting history related to Kuomintang). There was no buses
| or whatsoever.
|
| But of course, there's a 7-11 there.
| brigandish wrote:
| America must have terrible food in 7-11 if they can reach this
| level of hyperbole, and the sandwiches are awful, like most
| western food in Japan they're not really western food at all,
| just something in the shape of the original but made to be as
| soft as Japanese rice. The coffee is good though, and very cheap!
| wil421 wrote:
| I don't have 7-11s in my state but C-store food is the lowest
| tier food you could buy. Hotdogs or taquitos on rollers. Some
| have cafes where you can order pizza, biscuits, and small
| sandwiches but I'm convinced McDonalds is healthier. I'd rather
| eat chips or a breakfast bar. Personally I never eat that kind
| of food because I see how nasty it looks. The pizza slices look
| microwaved.
|
| There is a chain that has amazing tacos. I'm pretty sure the
| low quality meat is just packed with sodium to make it edible.
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| Some convenience stores like Wawa on the east coast have
| fantastic food that is definitely better than McDonalds (and
| just as busy at lunch time).
| wil421 wrote:
| Quick Trip and Race Track are the nicest ones in my area
| but still have questionable warm food I avoid. The BPs have
| the taco place but I forgot what it's called.
|
| A family owned gas station near me had really good homemade
| breakfast foods. The gas station closed so they ended up
| opening a breakfast store down the street, long lines
| everyday.
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| Kwik Trip? Or is Quick Trip a different chain?
| wil421 wrote:
| Yes it's different. People call it QT.
| hakfoo wrote:
| They started showing up here (Phoenix area) like 5 years
| ago. The dominant market player (Circle K) looked far
| less clean and appetizing by comparison, so we tend to go
| there by preference now.
|
| The food is _almost_ low-end-takeaway quality. The soft
| pretzels and milkshakes are nice, and the pizza will do
| in a pinch (particularly if you 're the only one who
| wants it and get an individual-sized one)
|
| In my experience, the pizza there is low-end chain
| quality, but unlike ordering delivery, you end up getting
| one $10 pizza instead of the family descending into
| squabbles over toppings and ordering three pies,
| mozzerella sticks, wings, and spending the better part of
| a Franklin.
|
| One of the big pandemic-era family experiences has been
| getting a pizza there, dividing it up and eating it in
| the car. (the box is perforated so it can be torn into
| rudimentary plates)
| betaby wrote:
| In Quebec we have "Couche-Tard" and it's just overpriced
| 'depanneur' oftentimes even with worse selection. In general
| ready to eat dishes is not a thing for some reason. Canada is way
| behind even compared with UK where ready to eat dishes from
| "Tesco Express". I still don't know why is the situation like
| that. Regulations?
| canadianfella wrote:
| > depanneur
|
| Why do you expect people to understand what you are talking
| about?
| Johnny555 wrote:
| The first time I went to a 7/11 in Japan was on my first trip
| there with my wife (who is Japanese). We got in late and wanted a
| quick bite to eat... there was a 7/11 next to the hotel and she
| said "Let's go there!" I scoffed and said that I wanted edible
| food and she said, just come!
|
| So we went and wow, what a difference from American 7/11's, they
| actually had fresh fruit and vegetables and the boxed sushi
| rivals what we can get at our nearby sushi restaurant back home.
| The rice balls are packaged so the Nori is encased in plastic and
| stays crispy until you open the package... and the Oden by the
| register looks unappetizing but is actually quite good. And all
| very reasonably priced.... and the 7/11's had no problem with our
| American credit card, unlike many small restaurants that only
| accept cash... fortunately, the 7/11 also has an ATM that works
| with most major networks. (some of these no-credit-card
| restaurants will accept a prepaid stored value card like Passmo
| or Suica)
|
| We took the food back to the hotel and realized that we forgot to
| pick up drinks, fortunately, the hotel had a handy beer vending
| machine on every floor... mmmm...Suntory Premium Malt... even the
| canned highballs (whiskey+club soda) are good.
|
| We had to cancel our trip to Japan in 2020 due to COVID, and
| looks like 2021 is out too, hopefully we can return in 2022.
| mattl wrote:
| At least here on the East Coast of the US, my local 7-11 has
| fresh fruit, normal grocery store priced items like black
| beans, bread, milk.
|
| Also a freshly prepared frozen pizza for $6.
| jorvi wrote:
| > freshly prepared frozen pizza
|
| Not to be pedantic, but that is an oxymoron. A pizza can
| either be freshly prepared or prepared beforehand and frozen
| in. I think the distinction is important because whilst fresh
| pizzas are reasonably healthy, deep freeze pizzas are chock
| full of preservatives and thus aren't.
| mattl wrote:
| I'm not sure. They're cheap enough that you might be
| pedantic ;)
| cwilkes wrote:
| I loved the rice balls in 7-11's. That plus a cold one shot
| saki on a bullet train where everything was neat and tidy was
| very pleasurable.
| konbini wrote:
| Part of what makes Konbini so integrated into Japanese life is
| their official capacity. You can send packages, pay your utility
| bills and print city documents
| fleaaaa wrote:
| Why would you do that when you can do that at home
| dkdbejwi383 wrote:
| I must be weird because my home isn't a courier drop off
| location.
|
| Also I don't own a printer. I live in a small flat/apartment
| (similar to many Japanese) and I don't want to dedicate space
| to a device that I would use 3 times a year.
| sneak wrote:
| and reload your IC card!
| glandium wrote:
| You can even pay your Amazon orders.
| madaxe_again wrote:
| Dunno why you're being downvoted, I found the Japanese system
| of e-commerce payments interesting. It's the norm there to go
| pay for your stuff in a konbini, with cash or whatever - and
| of course they can accept deliveries too.
| bllguo wrote:
| Japanese convenience stores have been a mined-out topic for
| _years_. Where is the coverage of the rest of Asia? Taiwanese
| convenience stores are actually more impressive imo, with a
| dizzying array of additional services. In China, the convenience
| store industry was already booming in recent years, with a
| diverse mix of foreign and domestic brands, and it has been
| growing even faster thanks to covid. Which sounds like an
| actually newsworthy topic, rather than the hundredth article
| about Japan. I have absolutely nothing against Japan but it is
| disappointing how it's the only East Asian country whose culture
| Americans care to look at.
| wyclif wrote:
| The Philippines also have 7-Elevens, but with nowhere near the
| variety of amenities compared to the Japanese or Taiwanese
| versions.
| CapricornNoble wrote:
| >>>I have absolutely nothing against Japan but it is
| disappointing how it's the only East Asian country whose
| culture Americans care to look at.
|
| I think it's a secondary effect of anime & manga creating a
| bunch of weebs that then proceed to wanna geek out about all
| things Japanese, all the time. The rest of Asia hasn't managed
| to produce the same sort of pop-culture inertia.
| tjpnz wrote:
| What a strange comment. There's nothing stopping you from
| posting something that isn't about Japan you know.
|
| FWIW I've visited convenience stores in Taiwan. They're not
| much different to what I've seen in Japan - in fact they both
| sell many of the same products.
| bllguo wrote:
| I suppose I wasn't clear, but I am referring to media
| coverage. What's weird is how people continue to view East
| Asia as some exotic strange place. We're all human and we
| should be promoting more cultural understanding. I'd love to
| have the power to affect that through my posts but I don't. I
| am not a member of the media! This article is published by
| the LA Times, which has enormous reach. Reach I think is
| wasted on yet another post on Japanese convenience stores
| (seriously, go look at how many of these there have been)
|
| just the fact that Taiwan compares is almost certainly less
| known to Americans than the contents of this piece
| b0rsuk wrote:
| Japan has a robust movie industry, which does a lot to
| popularize the country. A relevant scene from Tampopo:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38m-wnbHPLA
|
| Other Asian countries have starting to compete in the area,
| notably South Korea and China, but Chinese movies have always
| been chock full of propaganda. It's unbearable to me. And the
| Party mandates all humor should be "praising" (positive) in
| nature.
|
| Taiwan probably has more going for it than just high quality
| electronics, but China is successful in bullying anyone that
| mentions Taiwan as a separate country. I heard Taiwan does
| remarkably well to suppress covid19, for instance.
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