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Your neighborhood convenience store may be getting a lot more convenient soon thanks to an injection of Japanese retail culture and maybe some rice balls, too. In Japan, convenience stores are called Konbini, and as NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Tokyo, they've become part of the nation's infrastructure and a way of life.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: So I've just ducked into a random 7-Eleven to give you an idea of what they have here. We have fried chicken salad with sweetened vinegar sauce. There's a ticket kiosk where you can get tickets to concerts, museums. There's also a postal and courier counter where you can send and receive packages, pay taxes, as well as your utility bills. Just incredible.
Fresh food is delivered several times a day. The stores are open 24/7, and there are nearly 22,000 of them across Japan. Outside another store, Akihito and Emi Asao, both in their 80s, just bought sukiyaki and sashimi for dinner. Emi Asao says they used to shop for food elsewhere.
EMI ASAO: (Through interpreter) There used to be a vegetable shop and a meat shop, but they closed one after another because their owners had no successors. Then we got this Konbini, so we housewives all went, oh, yeah.
KUHN: 7-Eleven got its start as the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas, in 1927. Its first franchised store in Japan opened in 1974. Economic journalist Tomoyuki Isoyama says that 7-Eleven succeeded in taking an American import, adapting it to Japan's culture and improving it.
TOMOYUKI ISOYAMA: (Through interpreter) Originally, greengrocers and fishmongers sold goods by communicating with customers at the storefront. They took that traditional Japanese retail style and incorporated it into the systematized convenience store.
KUHN: 7-Eleven Japan's first CEO was Toshifumi Suzuki. Isoyama says Suzuki applied the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, continuously optimizing his store systems and improving his products.
ISOYAMA: (Through interpreter) Mr. Suzuki created the 7-Eleven style. It is well known that he used to eat his own store's bento box lunches every day. He always provided feedback and made improvements where they were needed.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Japanese).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Japanese).
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTISTS: (Singing) La, la, la, la, la.
KUHN: In the 1980s and '90s, the number of Konbinis grew rapidly, and the stores became deeply integrated into everyday Japanese life. Also, Isoyama says, government agencies and consumer service companies found it was easier to serve customers through convenience stores than through their own offices. And that, he says, is how convenience stores grew to become a critical part of Japan's national infrastructure.
ISOYAMA: (Through interpreter) People in rural areas say they'd rather have a convenience store than a post office. Customers all over Japan feel strongly about the convenience and that they offer a rich array of services that post offices simply can't.
KUHN: The American 7-Eleven became a wholly owned subsidiary of 7-Eleven Japan in 2005. It's now the world's largest convenience store chain with 87,000 stores in 20 countries and territories.
AUTOMATED VOICE: (Speaking Japanese).
KUHN: 7-Eleven's cash registers were busy last fiscal year, with its parent company's Seven & I Holdings taking in more than $81 billion in global sales. But with Japan's population aging and shrinking, 7-Eleven's best hope of expansion is overseas. It plans to open some 1,300 new stores in North America through 2030. It remains to be seen how well Japanese rice balls and tofu-and-seaweed salad will sell in the New World. Then again, skeptics dismissed for decades the idea that raw fish and rice would ever go mainstream in the U.S. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Tokyo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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