difference from those of other countries

America

In America, many stores with gas stations, and stores sell engine oil, goods for car washing and goods for car which Japanese convenience stores don't sell. Moreover, some stores supply us car service. This is the reason that America has vast area, so people who move a long distance can get stuck in the area which has no houses. This will be connected with life and death directly. The minimum daily necessities, light meal, drinks and many kinds of goods are prepared. America has AMPM, Mini-mart, Seven Eleven, etc...

In New York and Shicago which are city central part, stores have mainly groceries, miscellaneous goods for daily use and perishable foods(specially fruits). American stores don't chain stores which are often seen in Japan and independent store, so each store has business hours, commodities and scale respectively. For example, small stores which sell drink, snack, general merchandise and magazine, and large ones which sell meat, vegetables, cooked foods, seasoning, flower and beer.

Seven Eleven in Singapore

Asia

In Taiwan, the first convenience store opened in the end of 1970s. Now, there are 9,000 stores(August, 2007) and density for population is said to be No.1 in the world. The number of Seven Eleven stores was 2,000 in 2000, and was 4,500 in 2006, and new 400 stores open every year now. In city areas, there are more than 10 convenience stores within 1km.



In Asia, Japanese convenience stores have opened since 2000. In China, convenience stores have been burgeoning industry yet, but in Shanghai, more than 1,000 stores have opened for 10 years.

SevenEleven in Copenhagen

Europe
In Europe, because of religion and culture, stores don't open on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and at night and in the early morning, so it is difficult to open convenience stores. Especially in Dutch, because of low, stores can't open for a long time, so only shops with gas station can open in the early morning and at night, and holydays. However, in cities, we can find stores as Japanese Kiyosuku at station and busy streets. And there are Seven Eleven in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.





How to use convenience store

How much money people pay to convenience store for one use? A pole show that many people pay for under 1000 yen.

1.500~1000 yen(39.9%)

2.300~500 yen(33.5%)

3.~300 yen(13.5%)

Some people go to convenience store for no reason. The whole ratio of not to go to convenience store is 49.9%, but more than 70% teenagers go to convenience store if they don't have something to need.

A faborite convenience store is different among every area, and No.1 is Seven Eleven except Hokuriku and Shikoku. In Hokuriku and Shikoku, faborite convenience store is Lawson, and the ratio of Seven Eleven is under 10%. And in Hokkaido, Seico Mart is No.1 and Seven Eleven is No.2. In Tokai, No.1 is Seven Eleven and No.2 is Cirkle K, but the ratio is about same. In Kinki, Seven Eleven is No.1,but more people selected Lawson and FamilyMart than that of Kanto. Moreover, the reason of people often use convenience stores is that convenience stores are near to home, company and school. The following is that they used to going the store and that they have point card and electronic money of the store. It is important that stores are near to our environment.

Convenience stores rely heavily on the point of sale. Customers' ages and gender, as well as tomorrow's weather forecast, are important data. Stores place all orders on-line. As the store floor sizes are limited, they have to be very careful in choosing what brands to sell. In many cases, several stores from the same chain do business in neighboring areas. This strategy makes distribution to each store cheaper, as well as making multiple deliveries per day possible. Generally, food goods are delivered to each store two to five times a day from factories. Since products are delivered as needed, stores do not need large stock areas.

popular items

I think the most popular item of convenience stores in this season is oden.Oden is a dish in which a variety of ingredients such as tofu, eggs, white radish, fried fish paste, and potatoes are boiled together in a large pot of seasoned fish broth. Hot mustard and miso is served as a condiment.

Popular Ingredient Ranking(2010.11.24)
1.white radish
2.hard-boiled egg
3.whitish strings of konnyaku(devil's tongue)
4.beef gristle

5.a block of deep-fried bean curd

chibita's oden

Others, several exceptional type of oden are sold by some convenience stores. Lawson sells japanese omelette and udon. FamilyMart sells sausage and cheese in mochikinchaku which is pounded rice cake wrapped in a tofu pouch. And CircleK sunkus sells chibita's oden which is composed by konnnyaku(triangle), quail egg in boiled fish paste(round) and tubular roll of boiled [grilled] fish paste(square). The oden materializes ◁○□-(triangle-round-square). (This is representative of oden.)
Seven Eleven has 47 kinds, Lawson has 54 kinds and FamilyMart has 51 kinds oden.

By the way, there are other popular items in each convenience store. Mini Stop is popular because of soft ice cream and topvalu. Lawson is popular because of karaagekun and sweets. FamilyMart is popular because of sweets, famichiki and article sold without a brand name. Seven Eleven is popular because of sevenpremium.

Convenience stores in Tsukuba

A source of information which I looked over tells that Tsukuba City has about 108 convenience stores. No.1 is Seven Eleven and the number is 47 stores. No.2 is FamilyMart and the number is 20 stores. No.3 is Lawson and the number is 11 stores. And more, Coco stores(8), Mini Stop(7), Sunkus(7), SaveOn(6) and Seico Mart(2). Seven Eleven has many stores as usual, but FamilyMart has much many stores than Lawson. The stores of FamilyMart are a few around University of Tsukuba, so I think the number of FamilyMart is a few.

In September 26th, 2011, an ordinance and budget were concluded which we can get our certificates of residence copy and certificates  of the legal registration of our official seal by using our Basic Resident Register cards at Seven Eleven. We can get from Kiosuku terminal unit from a.m.6:30 to p.m.11:00, and we'll have to pay a fee of one hundred and fifty yen for getting it. However, we need procedure at town hall beforehand. Incidentally, we can use this service in the whole country.

The payment by the hour of a part time job at Seven Eleven in Tsukuba City is about from 740yen to 1070yen. At Lawson is about from 700yen to 1000 yen. At FamilyMart is about from 820 yen to 1040 yen.

FamilyMart

FamilyMart is Japanese convenience store. The first store was opened in Sayama, Saitama in 1973. At first, FamilyMart is under the umbrella of Seiyu but now is under the umbrella of ITOCHU corporation. The headquarters is on the 17th floor of the Sunshine60 Building in Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo. FamilyMart's official motto is "FamilyMart, Where You Are One of the Family." FamilyMart cooperated with am/pm in 2010 and absorbed it in 2011. am/pm expanded stores in Kanto Area, so FamilyMart could become to expand power in Kanto Area.

FamilyMart has stores in all prefectures of Japan and has number 1 share in Okinawa, Nagasaki, Kagoshima. FamilyMart is different from Seven Eleven, Lawson and so on at the point of "Japanese" convenience store, so expansion of sales is free and started to open stores in Asia in the early stage.

FamilyMart has own credit card named "Famima T-card"
 and we can use T-point card. The image color of FamilMart are blue and green, and brue expresses urbane, intellect, hope and liberty, and green expresses nature, fresh, young, clean.

At first, symbol of FamilyMart is "smile star and sun". The symbol was used by 1997. A melon pan whose motif is smile star and sun sold on 21th June, 2011.
The melody of FamilyMart(when we enter store) is EC5227WP melody sign made by Panasonic. The melody sign isn't for company so we can also buy it. In fact, some people use this chime for their house.

Lawson

The origin of Lawson is Milk Shop Lawson in Ohio state, America which was made by J.J.Lawson in1939. This is the source of Milk can of Lawson's logo. Milk of the shop became popular and started chain stores which sell daily necessities. Now, the company was absorbed so there is no Lawson in America.

In Japan, Daiei cooperated with the company in 1974 and established Daiei Lawson in the follow year. At first a store open in Toyonaka city, Osaka prefecture and started to open mainly in Kinki district. In September 1979 the official name was changed to Lawson Japan, Inc. Originally a joint venture between Japanese consumer retailing giant Daiei and U.S.-based Lawson Co., Lawson was a wholly owned subsidiary of Daiei until 2001, when Mitsubishi corporation became the main shareholder as Daiei's slide began.

Lawson is one of the top convenience store chains in Japan, second only to convenience franchise giant Seven Eleven. To date, Lawson operates in all 47 prefectures of Japan as well as in Shanghai, China. August 2011, Lawson opened their first store in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Lawson has many kinds of store, for example, Lawson satellite, Lawson store 100, Natural Lawson, Natural Lawson selection, Lawson plus, Lawson plus natural select, Lawson hybrid, Postal Lawson, Highway pit by LAWSON, Happy Lawson, LAWSON+toks.
Lawson has own point card named "Ponta card". T-point card used to use in Lawson.