The New Trend in Convenience Stores: "Otona Conbini"

When you think of a "convenience store" in the U.S., what image does it bring to mind? To me, it is a store where I may need to stop during a road trip or for getting emergency help during the holidays. For others, it may conjure the image of a thief on a security camera. I don't play the lottery, I don't drink soda pop, I don't pay $1 for a tiny pack of chips, so it's just not a place I usually "want" to go.

In Japan, on the other hand, I'll stop by at least two every day during my visit. There they call it "Conbini" (abbreviation of "convini"-ence); and there it's a place where I "want" to go. This clip is a TV commercial of a Seven Eleven for Christmas cakes. The girls are idol group AKB48: this is the image what Japanese Conbini imposes in Japan. Wow.

That's the first stop after arriving Narita for me. Conbini are everywhere in Japan. Hearing "irasshaimase ("Welcome!" - they greet every customer who enters) at the door and seeing snacks and Japanese fast foods makes me feel like I'm back. First I check the magazine section. I've gotta catch up with the "news". Then I go along the shelves of snacks. I'm not a sweet eater but I just wanna see their neat and cute sweets. So, instead of sweets, I check the liquor section if they have one. And then I take a look at their cosmetics and stationary. Each conbini chain may have their original brands of cosmetics and some of them are pretty good. I usually buy a pen or an eraser just because Japanese pens and erasers are always nice, even the ones from a conbini.

After checking in at the hotel, I go out and stop at a nearby conbini to get my dinner. It may sound bad to pick up something to eat at a convenience store but not in Japan. Their refrigerated open shelves have a variety of lunch boxes, even for dinner time, called "conbini bento". They also have sandwiches, pastries, a wide variety of onigiri (rice balls, something inside or mixed in rice); they constantly add new kinds of foods but keep traditional ones as well. Their salads are not the kind with only lettuce and shredded cabbage and a slice of tomato. They have cooked vegetable dishes as well as tiny packs of appetizers. Some stores only show the lunch boxes without rice. That is because a store clerk will put hot rice into the box from the rice jar after heating up the other food in the lunch box in a microwave by the cashier area. So I can eat warmed up food with hot rice. Of course I get a bottle of green tea.

I eat this conbini hot meal in the hotel room while watching Japanese TV. It's good enough for the night when a rest is more necessary than excitement. Browsing the conbini shelves can be a great way to pass the evening. Take note: some pricy hotels don't allow guests to bring foods and drinks int0 the room (they are supposed to order room services). But I don't worry about that since I don't stay at the more expensive hotels.

I envy Japanese who get to take advantage of and enjoy their everyday go to place, the conbini. Japanese people use convenience stores often, so they are everywhere. You'll probably see one or two in the mid size to big train stations. Some hotels have one on their property. Most of them take care of shipping UPS and FedEx packages. They have machines to get tickets of all kinds, an ATM, copy machines of course. So many services are available, therefore they truly earn their name "convenience" store. Each chain sells their own original foods and other goods; people go to a particular chain store for a particular need.

Now some people criticize conbini because they only target young people. Groups of school kids hang around in or outside of the store; they tend to get rowdy or a bit wild at times. Their food selection is very much kid oriented. So, recently, some convenience store owners have designed a store for mature audiences. They call it "Otona (adult) Conbini". Okay, the name might be unfortunate because in English it sounds like an adult bookstore with pornographic things for sale -- but of course it's not.

Instead of cheap, high calorie high sugar (actually, high salt is more of a problem in Japan though) unhealthy snacks, they sell health conscious snacks with natural ingredients. Instead of cheap toy-like cosmetics, they sell natural soaps. The project group of promoting such conbini items has produced items with the aim to market to and attract adult consumers. Lately they opened the first store in the Tokyo suburb of Daikanyama as a franchise of Family Mart.

It is like a convenience store version of Whole Foods. Daikanyama is a higher income neighborhood and the concept of such a store is likely to be accepted here. The prices are about 10% higher than other Family Mart franchises but their items are not regular conbini items. More health and environment conscious foods and goods are stocked for customers. The store matches the landscape, of course.

Well, I'm not from such an area and it sounds a bit too snobby to me, but we'll see. I don't know if this convenience store for adults will be successful even in Tokyo. However, I wouldn't complain if such a trend was adopted by the convenience store in my neighborhood.