![]() ![]() Though I probably should stop working so late.”, he says with a laugh.įor 27-year-old Shigeru, the konbini is an essential part of his side hustle. I really don’t want to eat unhealthy food. “I often go home from work after midnight and stop at the konbini to grab their low-carb snacks and fresh salads. ![]() Japan’s convenience stores mean different things to different people.įor 40-year-old Hiroyuki, it is a source of healthy food. Most consumers prefer to pay ~500 yen (~4 USD) to buy a tasty lunch with many items, than go through the trouble of making lunch from scratch at home. Typical bento from a convenience store Source: autan In addition to carrying many varieties of bentos daily, the contents change with the seasons. Konbinis have large scale operations that deliver fresh bentos (lunch boxes) to stores. When FamilyMart introduces their Chicken Nuggets (fondly called “FamiChiki”) you can expect Lawson will compete with their “TanChiki” ( Tanpaku (protein) Chicken). On top of that, the scale of their operation enables them to strike deals with manufacturers to make “ konbini only” variants of their products that further drive traffic and consumption.įamilyMart's Famichiki, Lawson's TanChiki Source: FamilyMart, Lawson Store managers can order things from a catalog of ~8,000 items that the franchise headquarters constantly updates, and have it delivered the same day. The truth? Often just to wander around and see what’s new.Ĭonvenience stores, on average, carry around 3,000 products and their inventory is updated with dizzying frequency. In the same vein, convenience store (“ konbiniensu sutoa-”) becomes “konbini”, and that is what we will use for the rest of this post. Remote controller (“ rimo-to kontoro-ra-”) becomes “rimokon”. 7-Eleven (“ sebun irebun”) becomes “sebu-ire”. Long words get shortened to 3 or 4 syllables. ![]() Japanese speakers have a penchant for brevity. It will mostly make sense even without reading Part 1, but you would be missing out on a lot of context!īefore we start, let's take a quick detour to talk about that word in the heading below. Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part article. ![]()
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