世界には親心しかない in KOBE

Recently, on my way to work, I felt the need to use the restroom. Checking Google Maps, I saw a nearby 7-Eleven and went in, only to find that it didn't have a restroom. This experience taught me that not all convenience stores have restrooms; some do, while others do not. Having restrooms in convenience stores was not always common, but it started becoming more prevalent when Lawson began emphasizing it.  The major convenience store chains in Japan are 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart. Recently, I heard news that 7-Eleven is going private through a management buyout (MBO), led by the founding family and Itochu Corporation. Itochu Corporation, which already owns FamilyMart, will own shares in 7-Eleven as well. This means that 7-Eleven and FamilyMart will both be under the Itochu umbrella, while Lawson will be under the Mitsubishi Corporation group. I wonder what the future holds. Personally, I find 7-Eleven to be the most convenient among convenience stores. While I believe there a...

It's not just limited to Kobe, but convenience stores are everywhere and incredibly convenient. So much so that they are deeply rooted in daily life, almost becoming a part of Japanese culture. Convenience stores were actually born out of the Large-Scale Retail Store Location Act, a law that existed in the past. If a retail store tries to reduce costs through corporate efforts, it's common to pursue the benefits of scale and expand large-scale stores. However, this would obviously deteriorate the business of small retail stores without unique features. To prevent this, the Large-Scale Retail Store Location Act was enacted. You could say it was a law created to protect the vested interests of small and medium-sized enterprises. This law required large-scale retail stores to listen to local opinions before opening, effectively making it difficult to establish new stores. As a result, the natural flow was for smaller stores utilizing the benefits of scale to increase. This led to ...