Week 3: Local Convenience Stores

 Have you watched strange convenience stores in districts? I have watched it whenever I travel. In Japan there are much strange convenience stores. For example, there are convenience stores which are brown and orange unlike convenience store of Tokyo and which only the district has. On this topic I explain why they exist, where they are and what there are.

 Have you been to Izu in Shizuoka and Nasu in Tochigi? Did you go to convenience stores then? I think that you would watch convenience stores even if you did not go to them. Do you remember the color of the signboard of the convenience store at that time? I think that it was brown. Do you know why convenience stores which have the brown signboard exist in specific districts? The reason is related to the place with them. Districts where there is such a convenience store are the district called the aesthetic area. The aesthetic area is a district to establish to maintain the beautiful sight of the city area. Furthermore, it is one of the area districts that can appoint a local government and the district where the placement of the building, structure can perform building limits to protect beautiful sights in districts keeping the building beauty to be taken of the harmony balance. Specifically, it is a district regulating a color and the outdoor advertising of the building. The color of the convenience store becomes brown from such a reason. In addition, the signboard of convenience stores becomes low in specific districts. Also this reason is so again. One question for your convenience store would be in this way broken off.
 Next, I introduce some convenience stores which only the district have.
・  SEIKO Mart [This presents 1040 stores led by Hokkaido. (About 100 stores of those are in Saitama and Ibaraki.) In addition, SEIKO Mart is said to be the first Japanese convenience store. (Week1)

・Little Star
・Hallo Shop
・Orange Heart
[These convenience stores are developed around the Tohoku district. By the way, I have watched Orange Heart in Niigata. Rice balls using rice from Niigata were sold in the Orange Heart of Niigata that I went because it gives service coherent to the hometown.]
・SAVE ON
・Three F
・SHOP99 (LAWSON Store 100)
・NATURAL LAWSON
[These convenience stores are developed around Kanto district. I sometimes watch Three F and NATURAL LAWSON. I describe slightly NATURAL LAWSON. It is unlike LAWSON. And it developed for the purpose of increasing the new target layer for woman customers and being differentiation with the convenience store which the company presented.]
・NEWDAYS

・Bellmart
・Heart In / Daily In
[These convenience stores are run by some railroad companies. NEWDAYS is run by JR East. Bellmart is run by JR central. Heart In and Daily In are run by JR West. Convenience stores where railroad companies run the convenience store which I see well when we get on a train.]
 Was there the convenience store which you had watched? There is still a lot elsewhere. I think that there is a lot of strange convenience stores. I will find it from now on. Next blog is The Sales of Convenience Store. Don't miss it!

Week 2：What is the convenience store?

 Do you know correct definitions of the convenience store? I think that most people think that convenience stores are established anywhere. I actually thought it until I studied convenience stores. However, I knew that the convenience store had a correct definition and there were various definitions after having studied a convenience store. On this topic I explain these definitions.
 1: The convenience store is a small superstore to be from an early morning to the middle of the night or to treat mainly on articles necessary for everyday life.
This is the definition of Sanseido (is a book store).
 2: The convenience store is an establishment retailing various daily commodities mainly on the drink food by a self-service method. In addition, its store scale is small and it is an open office daylong or for along time. (Various daily commodities are products purchasing at high frequency routinely, in other words food and daily use miscellaneous goods. Foods sold at a convenience store are things which I can eat immediately without cooking.
This is the definition by the standard industrial classification that Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications gave in Japan.
 3: The convenience store is a store treating food and using self-service method. In addition, its area is 20㎡〜250㎡ and its business hours are more than 14 hours.
This is the definition of the business condition classification in commercial statistics of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

However, actually, it is often open not 14 hours business describing by these definitions but 24 hours. But there is the movement to review opening for 24 hours in a cause for consideration to cost-effectiveness and global warming in the future. In addition, Foods sold at a convenience store are things which I can eat immediately without cooking. The price almost becomes the list price. This is because a price reduction is difficult. This reason are not stocking in large quantities at a time like a supermarket, and one piece of article management being formed by systems such as the POS.
 I gave three main definitions on this topic, but there seems to be still several it. This is the reason why I noted 'there are few related documents and the definition of convenience store are vague' on Week1's blog. The first Japanese convenience store which I described with Week1's blog changes by which definition you use. In addition, the name of the convenience store meant a shop handling food, products to offer for days namely convenience products, but mean a shop being convenience in Japan. Then why is the definition of the convenience store vague? I researched various documents about the thing, but was not listed.
 Did you know that such a definition exist in the convenience store. We do not call all of shops to treat mainly on from morning to the middle of the night or the article which it is without holiday, and is necessary for everyday life with a convenience store. You were able to understand a convenience store a little, weren't you? Next topic is 'Local convenience store'. Please look forward to the next topic. (522)

Week 1: History

  Do you know the history of the convenience store? But you use convenience stores almost every day, probably you don't know details of it. When young persons like us was born, convenience stores has already existed. When were the convenience store born why and where? On this topic I explain it.
  First, I explain the first convenience store. The world's first convenience store was born in Texas in the late 1920s. In the United States where its country is large, and a residential area and commercial areas are often far, it was common that people bought daily necessities at a time regularly in a supermarket. There were a lot of cases that a thing necessary accidentally was not prepared by the bulk buying. In response to the sudden demand, it is a convenience store to have developed as the shop which can purchase minimum daily necessities. It is Southland ice company established in United States Texas Dallas in 1927 to have produced convenience stores. John Jefferson Green which ran a retail store of ice making company of Southland ice company conducted business day after day for 16 hours without a holiday in the summer of the long drought. In summer of 1927, he suggested to the company that I wanted to sell food or other belongings in response to the demand of the customer and was accepted. On May 1, 1928, he paid 1000 dollars as a share of the sales to the company based on a promise. Convenience store business was born with this.
　By the way, do you want to know the Japanese first convenience store than it. So I also want to explain it. But I cannot necessarily decide which the first convenience store is because there are few related documents and the definition of convenience store are vague. But I think in consideration of all and I try to explain the history in Japan. The first convenience store in Japan was born at Tajimi station in Gifu in 1962. This convenience store was created  by people concerned with train service. But the My shop created in Osaka in 1969 may be the first Japanese case. And in 1971 Cocostore was born in Aichi, in 1972 Family mart was born in Saitama, and in 1974 Seven eleven was born in Tokyo.
  Most Japanese people would think that the convenience store had been born in Japan. However, actually, it is not so. Japanese-style convenience stores heavily influenced those stores in other Asian nations, such as Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and China. However, Japan has the thing which I contributed to in every thing as well as today's convenience store business. It is the POS system which Seven-Eleven introduced in 1982. It is the first among the world to have utilized POS information for marketing called the merchandising.
 We receive a lot of benefits of such ancient people. It will be a very important thing to know these history as one human being I live in today, and uses a convenience store. (504)