A new campaign from 7-11 Japan seems to be winning back customers for the ailing convenience store (combini) chain. However, some online commenters say the store’s gonna have to do a lot more than that to make up for its high prices and shrinking volumes.
It’s hard economic times in Japan for everyone. But 7-11 Japan has been uniquely feeling the hurt among the country’s combini chains. While rivals Family Mart and Lawson are holding their own, 7-11, the country’s largest chain, saw profits dip in consecutive quarters last year. (It must be all that drinkable mayonnaise Lawson’s been selling.)
The reason? As prices of even common goods like cabbage continue to rise, the price of combini items has gone up – and their volume has gone down.
As a result, more people are skipping the packaged convenience of combini and going to supermarkets instead. Aeon’s My Basket, which is a sort of “combini supermarket” containing what you’d find in a regular supermarket in a paired-down form, has benefited the most from this push.
However, with Family and Lawson still doing okay, many business experts have branded 7-11 a 一人負け (hitori make), or “standalone loser.” The other chains, they say, have done a better and faster job of convincing customers they’re offering healthy volumes of food at decent prices.
To win customers back, 7-11 launched a new discount campaign last year. Titled うれしい値! (ureshii ne!), the clever play on words takes the expression “What a delight!” and replaces the Japanese agreement particle ne (ね) with the kanji for “price,” turning the expression into something like “Delightful price!”
In concrete terms, the advertising campaign highlights items of high quality – including fresh food and bento meals – selling for “reasonable” prices. Around 300 items have been classified as Delightful Price items.
The good news, if you’re 7-11, is that the effort seems to be working. CEO Natsumaga Fumihiko says the company saw an increase in new male and female customers in their 20s. Natsumaga says the goal is to make 7-11 Japan “your everyday neighborhood store.”
However, online commenters aren’t convinced. On Yahoo! News JP, many say they’ve ditched shopping at combini altogether in favor of their local supermarket. Combinis, they say, are just too dang expensive now.
“As someone raised in the age of the 100 yen onigiri, I won’t reach for them at today’s prices,” one oft-recommended comment reads. “Even bento have little volume relative to their price. The number of times I’ve left a combini empty-handed after looking for something to eat’s on the rise.”
Others singled out 7-11 as uniquely bad, saying that even these “Delightful Prices” aren’t enough to bring them back.
“Their onigiri are small, the bread’s small. They’re trying to get me to buy this with these ‘delightful prices’? The onigiri and bento at Family Mart and Lawson are a better deal.”
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