[HN Gopher] 7-Eleven Is Reinventing Its $17B Food Business to Be...
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7-Eleven Is Reinventing Its $17B Food Business to Be More Japanese
[video]
Author : indigodaddy
Score : 47 points
Date : 2024-07-05 20:56 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| m463 wrote:
| 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.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| 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.
| Klonoar wrote:
| 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).)
| sho_hn wrote:
| I'd say in Korea 7-11 is the worst of the top 3 options
| though (GS25, CU and 7-11)
| Klonoar wrote:
| 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.
| mlinhares wrote:
| 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.
| alephnerd wrote:
| The Asian equivalent of a trashy and cheap American 7/11
| or Circle-K would be street vendors or a hyper-local
| general store/bodega with a bare minimum amount of goods.
|
| In much of Asia (JP, SK, and TW excluded), convenience
| stores like 7-11 are similar luxury wise to what Target
| is in the US.
| jrockway wrote:
| With that in mind, I've never noticed a difference between
| the various brands of Japanese convenience stores. Lawson /
| Family Mart / 7/11 all seem the same to me. The only thing
| that ever stood out about 7/11 was that I could use their
| ATMs to take money out of my American bank account circa 2002
| when I lived there. (The post office also worked.)
| parhamn wrote:
| Probably because most Americans live in lower density cities.
| Fresh food distribution is a lot harder in low density areas,
| and that is probably why 7-11 focuses on microwavable wings
| and hotdogs in the US.
|
| A good NYC bodega is as stacked as a 7-11 in Tokyo. Really
| good fresh baked goods and they'll cook up anything you want
| for you too.
| chipgap98 wrote:
| But 7-11s in Japan seem better than American convenience
| stores in similar density areas (from my experience)
| forgetfreeman wrote:
| 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.
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| As we all know, "gas station sushi" enjoys a special place of
| trust in American culture.
| corey_moncure wrote:
| Please bring the salmon jerky.
| philip1209 wrote:
| 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.
| Loughla wrote:
| 7-11 here in the States tends to be a great place to get
| stabbed and/or purchase illegal drugs, in my experience.
| throwup238 wrote:
| Here their parking lots are used to stage large illegal
| street racing competitions.
| le-mark wrote:
| 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.
| Graziano_M wrote:
| When I was there last I had an egg salad sandwich almost every
| day.
| shermantanktop wrote:
| Tamago sando! The hot dog bun version is a little odd to me.
| xianshou wrote:
| 7-11, Family Mart, and Lawson are the holy trinity of konbini
| (convenience stores)
| wesapien wrote:
| I stayed in Japan for two months and some days I don't feel
| like sitting down for food. I go to a a grocery store (or
| supermarket) and grab food there to take home. If there's
| none along the way, I go for konbini.
| navbaker wrote:
| 7-11 spam musabi is amazing if you're ever on one of the Hawaiian
| islands
| the__alchemist wrote:
| 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 video for one example)
| malwrar wrote:
| In my (midwest) experience maybe in cities 7-11s are primarily
| convenience stores, but once you drive out into the
| suburbs/country they're always gas stations. Until I started
| living in cities I wasn't even aware there _were_ convenience
| store 7-11s!
| bane wrote:
| The weird ones are in the lower density American suburb/urban
| transition area where many of the 7-11s are setup as if they
| could have gas pumps but don't and act as drive-up
| convenience stores/small groceries.
| Molitor5901 wrote:
| In some places they do, such as the northeastern United States,
| but it seems like it might be more of a partnership with a gas
| provider branded as 7-11.
| greenthrow wrote:
| It's a commonly believed lie that gasoline is not profitable.
| It is the main profit center for all gas station chains.
| StanislavPetrov wrote:
| 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.
| next_xibalba wrote:
| > The video mentions at least twice that gas is one of the two
| main revenue sources of 7-11 in USA.
|
| Definitely. 7-11 is nationwide with thousands of locations and
| the majority of those found outside huge, built-up metros sell
| gas.
|
| > Unrelated: Is it normal in marketing to refer to customers as
| "targets"? (See around 75% through the video for one example)
|
| Yes. I worked at a place where we called them "military aged
| males." /s
| alekratz wrote:
| it's kind of disappointing that they're focusing on food in this.
| I get that it's a quarter of their revenue, but one of the things
| that makes japanese convenience stores so convenient is that you
| can do more than just buy stuff. like, they often have printers
| and scanners if you need to make a copy of something or print
| something off. or if you're a tourist and you're taking the train
| someplace and have too much luggage, you can get it shipped to
| the hotel at your destination via 7/11. that's the kind of thing
| I would love to see in a convenience store.
| ambarp2 wrote:
| 7-11 (the corporation) is owned by one of its own Japanese
| franchisees, Seven & I Holdings.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven
| ajb wrote:
| 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
| mathgeek wrote:
| Not sure of the structure in Japan and China, but US 7-11s are
| franchised and thus the individual owners have a huge effect on
| the base level of service and upkeep. There are many
| stereotypes that it wouldn't be appropriate to get into here,
| but the quality of individual stores can vary a lot.
|
| They are also known as a place to buy huge sodas, tobacco, and
| energy drinks, but many other convenience stores also provide
| those.
| alephnerd wrote:
| > 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
|
| In Asia, 7-11, Circle K, GS25, etc are all "upscale"ish outside
| of JP/SK/TW.
|
| They can't compete at the price point that a local bodega or
| street vendor in Dongguan, Diliman, or Da Lat so they segment
| themselves as slightly more upscale. Sort of like how Target
| differentiates itself from Walgreens and CVS.
|
| The whole point is that because they're
| Japanese/Korean/Taiwanese they are much more "luxury" than a
| local brand.
| varispeed wrote:
| Have warm memory of 7-11 in Japan. Basically they had only cash
| machine that I could use to withdraw some money as all other in
| the area refused my cards. Sort of saved my life in a way.
| underlogic wrote:
| 711 food in the US is sugar saturated to a comical degree. This
| store will hurt you. I think there's grounds for class action.
| That's what happens when you track and then promote the most
| addictive products of the company inventory
| petulla wrote:
| 7/11 just opened its largest store in Taipei. It really bears no
| resemblance to the US stores.
| https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5mnlYjgeGxQ
| yinser wrote:
| This made me curious how much smokeless tobacco products like
| vapes and Zyn offset the losses they talked about in combustible
| tobacco products.
| sdsd wrote:
| I spent so much time on an imageboard called 711chan, as a teen.
| It's actually still around: 711chan.wtf.
|
| Wanting to contribute to leh /i/nsurgency nonsense was kind of
| how I got into programming. Not related to TFA, but that's what
| it made me remember.
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