How Japan’s Top 3 Convenience Store Chains Shaped the Market
The history of convenience stores in Japan (plus why they’re the best in the world)
When I think of convenience stores in Australia, a few not-so-great things come to mind. A devastating bland product range, overinflated prices and wage theft.
But in Japan, convenience stores (or conbini) are nothing short of remarkable. Everyone loves them. They are graced with an extensive product range, fair prices and professional working standards. It’s a little surreal how convenience stores can elicit such conflicting feelings simply based on my latitude and longitude.
So where did it all begin?
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The rise of 7-Eleven
To my surprise, convenience stores haven’t been around in Japan all that long — Japan’s first convenience store was only opened in 1969.
5 years later, in May of 1974, Ito-Yokado Co. Ltd. (Japan) and Southland Corporation (US) joined…
