[HN Gopher] A peek into Japan's convenience stores (Part 2)
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A peek into Japan's convenience stores (Part 2)
Author : kizunajp
Score : 41 points
Date : 2023-06-11 13:01 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (one-from-nippon.ghost.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (one-from-nippon.ghost.io)
| talkingtab wrote:
| Be aware, the site says "for subscribers only"
| gnfargbl wrote:
| Subscription is free, though.
| purplecats wrote:
| time and effort are costs
| jschveibinz wrote:
| Some back story on the Lawson brand in Ohio:
|
| As a child growing up in NE Ohio in the 60's and 70's, I used to
| ride my bike to the local Lawson store to buy candy, gum or a
| bottle of "pop." Lawson was generally a clean, small and friendly
| neighborhood store with a limited selection of items. My parents
| would stop in on the way home from work or an outing to buy milk
| and bread or an evening snack. They had very good ice cream, and
| their onion chip dip was amazing--folks in NE Ohio still miss
| that dip (although a similar version is available at Circle-K
| now).
|
| There was a classic Lawson TV commercial for their orange juice.
| The juice was squeezed in Florida and delivered to Ohio in
| refrigerated tank trucks "in 40 hours." The trucks were labeled
| "Big-O" and the freshness of the juice was a big selling point.
| Here's a link to the commercial on YT:
|
| https://youtu.be/B7r6A6YQdtI
|
| I believe most Lawson stores were run by families: husband and
| wife. My parents had friends who ran one for their entire careers
| and lived a decent middle class lifestyle.
|
| The Lawson success story in Ohio pretty much ended when
| Consolidated Foods bought the company. But big changes were
| happening then anyway. I always found it to be so strange that
| someone in Japan would buy the rights to the name since it was
| really just a regional brand. When I went to Tokyo on vacation,
| seeing the logo on stores that look (and smell) nothing like the
| originals was a strange experience for me.
|
| Thanks for the article!
| drumhead wrote:
| Its one of the big three out there, along with 7-11 and Family
| Mart.
| spike021 wrote:
| There are other smaller chains as well. I think I saw more
| MiniStop (sp.?) in Sapporo than Lawsons or Family Mart. But
| those three are definitely the biggest.
| rjh29 wrote:
| SeicoMart is the one exclusive to Hokkaido. It's great!
| WeylandYutani wrote:
| Things have improved in my country since Christianity went out
| the window and supermarkets were allowed to open on
| Sunday/Christmas but Japan's 24/7 economy is out of this world!
|
| "Money never sleeps pal"
| kizunajp wrote:
| Hello HN!
|
| On my previous post
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36110833#36123339) many
| people encouraged me to write about Japan's convenience stores.
|
| I set out to write and it was so interesting I just _had_ to
| create a Part 2. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had
| writing it!
|
| Thank you!
| jaipilot747 wrote:
| Glad to see the part 2. Part 1 generated some interest on HN too
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277962
| snowman56789 wrote:
| That bento looks amazing for 5 dollars! It really can't be that
| cheap and look this good.
| kizunajp wrote:
| It is! Not exactly the same bento, but take this one from
| FamilyMart for example -
| https://www.family.co.jp/goods/obento/0616225.html
|
| It is 498 yen (3.57 USD) and that is taxes included!
| csa wrote:
| It is.
| spike021 wrote:
| In my experience the cheapest convenience store bentos in japan
| are roughly equivalent to slightly better than fast food
| Japanese in California.
|
| And usually the price is much different too. Like 500 yen,
| which in America might be $4.50 or so, but the equivalent in
| America (or California at least) would cost maybe 3x as much.
|
| I joke about it with a Japanese friend I made on one of my
| trips. There's a Japanese family restaurant chain that has some
| locations in California (Yayoi). In japan it's just another
| family restaurant where you can get reasonably priced meals
| (maybe up to 1500 yen but I haven't been in a few years) and in
| America the same restaurant easily charges $20-25 for regular
| meals.
|
| Food tends to be very economical in Japan, at least to me as a
| visitor.
| meatjuice wrote:
| > Japanese speakers have a penchant for brevity. Long words get
| shortened to 3 or 4 syllables.
|
| True
|
| > 7-Eleven ("sebun irebun") becomes "sebu-ire".
|
| I don't think so. We, in most cases, use "seven (se-bu-
| nn)"instead.
| Blackthorn wrote:
| I wish here in the USA we could get convenience stores even close
| to how good they are in places like Japan and Thailand. Why do
| they get 7-11: The Good Version?
| innocentoldguy wrote:
| Me too! 7-11's food is amazing in Japan (especially the bakery
| items). In the US they just have junk food and smell like a
| urinal.
| 0zemp3c wrote:
| we seem fine for grocery stores, which will always have more,
| better, fresher
|
| living in Texas, I have a great HEB nearby and when I go to
| Canada I feel like I am in some 80s communist country when I go
| into Loblaw's
| bpodgursky wrote:
| High-trust, high-conscientiousness society.
|
| Look at the average US 7-11 employee. Do you actually want them
| manhandling your food? We get prepackaged food because we have
| strict kitchen regulations because the average minimum-wage
| employee is kinda lazy and has poor hygiene.
| wizofaus wrote:
| The food at Japanese convenience stores is pre-packaged too -
| it's just much better quality.
| Blackthorn wrote:
| In the northeastern USA we had Wawa for a long time which
| made good food fresh on site. There was absolutely nothing
| wrong with the employees who prepared it, they're not any
| worse than someone from Subway or a local gas station chain
| making a sub. Something happened that was probably cost-
| cutting and now it's all prepackaged and horrible. I stopped
| going. Enshittification but for convenience stores?
| csa wrote:
| This was not a small part of my reverse culture shock when I
| moved back to the US.
|
| Cheap, ubiquitous, and tasty food available 24/7 has a lot of
| merits. Not to mention there are no blue laws in Japan that
| limit when alcohol can be sold.
| Blackthorn wrote:
| On the bright side, at least I can buy fruit without being
| super wealthy. What you lose on the swings you gain on the
| roundabouts, I guess.
| innocentoldguy wrote:
| There is expensive designer fruit in Japan(I guess that's a
| good way to describe it), but there is also regular fruit
| that is around the same price as in the US.
| rendaw wrote:
| What fruit is so expensive in Japan?
| mejutoco wrote:
| Not an expert, but from what I saw: fancy peaches sold
| individually and melons. These are supposed to be good
| gifts to bring as a guest.
| wizofaus wrote:
| They're definitely exceptional cases, but in general
| tropical fruit (mangos, pineapples, even bananas) can be
| up to two or three times the price you might be used to
| paying in the US (or even Australia - not sure what it's
| like now but when I was in the US 15 years ago I remember
| bananas being especially cheap even in supermarkets -
| here you generally have to go to dedicated fruit/veg
| markets to get fresh produce cheaply).
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