Magazines out, fashion in at convenience stores in Japan

The first Japanese supermarket is said to have opened in 1969 in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, as part of a chain that no longer exists.

Today, the domestic supermarket industry is led by Seven-Eleven Japan Co., which had more than 21,400 stores nationwide as of the end of May, followed by FamilyMart Co., with about 16,500 stores as of the same date, and Lawson, Inc., which had about had 14,600 points of sale. These three operators dominate the ‘conbini’ landscape, accounting for approximately 90% of all convenience stores in Japan.

The Japan Standard Industrial Classification defines convenience stores as self-service stores that sell food and beverages and have an area between 30 square meters and 250 square meters.

According to the latest preliminary report on the current trade survey of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, there were 56,232 convenience stores in Japan in 2022, with sales of nearly ¥12.2 trillion. The bursting of the bubble economy in the early 1990s marked a dramatic change in Japanese retailing, with a shift from department stores, department stores and supermarkets to shopping centers and convenience stores. Now, after the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, e-commerce seems to be becoming the main force in the sector.

Looking ahead, convenience store operators face two significant challenges. Firstly, magazine sections could eventually disappear from local shops. Such sections created new sales channels for print publications as convenience stores gained popularity in the 1990s. However, young people have become less and less dependent on magazines, and those who buy magazines in convenience stores today tend to belong to the older generations. With the easing of the pandemic, foreign tourists have become an important part of the convenience shopping industry. However, non-Japanese tourists do not often purchase Japanese-language publications. As a result, some supermarkets have started removing magazine racks to make room for other merchandise, in line with demand from foreign tourists.

The other notable problem can be traced to FamilyMart, which has been selling basic clothing since March 2021. The co-developer of the Convenience Wear brand is up-and-coming designer Hiromichi Ochiai, born in 1977. Ochiai has participated in fashion weeks in Tokyo and Paris with his brand Facetasm.

The Convenience Wear range includes ribbed socks, no-show socks, various T-shirts, boxer shorts and eco bags. Items are sold in transparent packaging and typically cost about ¥400 to ¥2,200. The quality of the products is much higher than the usual ’emergency clothing’ sold in local stores, such as shirts or underwear.

Two years later, the Convenience Wear brand has won many new fans and become a staple in FamilyMart stores, which as of August 4, 2022 had seven times more domestic outlets than Uniqlo’s 2,394 stores worldwide.

Ochiai has also collaborated with FamilyMart in areas other than clothing. In November 2022, the company began using colorful Ochiai-designed packaging for mobile phone accessories, combining functionality and visual appeal.

In March 2023 – shortly before the opening of the professional baseball season – the retail chain operator began selling Convenience Wear products, including towels and socks, in partnership with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team at approximately 720 FamilyMart stores in Hiroshima and numerous from other cities in the region. the Chugoku region.

In addition to small towels and boxer shorts jointly produced by Hawaii Aloha shirt brand Reyn Spooner, the Convenience Wear brand has also launched its first line of shoes: a pair of sandals priced at ¥2,990.

Sooner or later, the Convenience Wear brand may have its own physical stores.

Akira Miura