Will we live a "convenience store life" in the future?

"Fireworks won't be perfect until it gets dark.

Memories burned to ashes and still can't wait to end.

It doesn't matter what she once said. I am afraid of being destroyed day by day. "

You should have heard the song She Said, but maybe you haven't seen the mv she said.

In the mv, JJ Lin plays a convenience store clerk, who looks at customers' joys and sorrows from such a unique perspective, remembers customers' habits and likes and dislikes, and plays a conscientious background board in everyone's story.

Although he is only a bystander, he is also the closest person to the story. After being lovelorn, the first place the heroine went was a convenience store.

It seems that all the unhappiness is blocked out. Sitting in a convenience store is like pressing the pause button on the life progress bar, and you can be in a daze without being disturbed. Maybe there is a caring employee like JJ Lin who will hand you a cup of coffee and chat with you for a while.

What does the convenience store mean to us?

For me, a convenience store is a breakfast shop where you can eat hot steamed buns before 8: 00 in the morning, and you can also have a delicious lunch sashimi after dragging the hall, and you can study in peace after the library closes at night.

Perhaps convenience stores play different multifaceted roles for different people.

The appearance of convenience stores makes the city less lonely during the day and at night. Today, let's talk about convenience stores.

The history of convenience stores

Convenience stores originated in America 1927. The first convenience store is now the famous 7- 1 1, 1973, which was imported from Japan. 1979, China Taiwan Province Province introduced 7-11; In 1992, Chinese mainland introduced 7- 1 1. Today, 7- 1 1 has more than 20,000 stores in more than 20 countries around the world, making it a well-deserved king of convenience stores.

Convenience stores began to appear because large warehouse supermarkets in the suburbs of the United States were inconvenient in terms of distance, time and service. In order to buy daily necessities more conveniently, convenience stores came into being.

Convenience stores overcome the inconvenience of traditional supermarkets and learn from the management and operation technology of supermarkets. From 1950s to 1990s, the number of convenience stores in the United States increased from 500 to 84,500 in less than 40 years, achieving an explosive growth of 169 times.

Convenience stores originated in the United States, but it was the Japanese who really played the role of Guanyin. 1970s Japan is in a period of vigorous economic development. Professional women, dink and other people are increasing rapidly, and the consumption of semi-finished food and cooked food is becoming more and more popular. Convenience stores have developed rapidly with this east wind. By 2000, only 7- 1 1 had more than 8,600 stores in Japan.

Today, there are more than 60,000 convenience stores in Japan, with annual sales of 10 trillion yen, even exceeding the economic aggregate of a small country.

Characteristics of convenience stores in Japan

Convenience stores in Japan can do anything. First of all, in terms of food, breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight snack and snacks are all available. The steamed bread in the glass cabinet kept warm all day on the counter is steaming; The bubbling Guandong boiler exudes an attractive fragrance; Ding is a microwave oven to remind you that a hot lunch is coming out; After the rumble, soy milk or milkshake is within reach.

Although the food sold in convenience stores is characterized by convenience, the taste is not inferior, which is attributed to the ingenuity of the Japanese.

Convenience stores require that the taste, taste and weight of each box lunch should be strictly unified, and even stipulate the size, weight and thickness of meat and vegetables.

At the same time, convenience stores should ensure the freshness of food, put fresh food on shelves at different times every day, and send special personnel to the store for inspection. Cooked food can only last six to eight hours. Throw away the bread and lunch that can't be sold before 0/2 o'clock every day/kloc-,and pick it up in time if it has been boiled for too long.

In addition to eating, convenience stores are ATMs, washing machines, printers, ticket sales windows, payment windows, pharmacies, beauty shops, express delivery stations and rest places, which can meet the complex needs of people in various lives, such as withdrawing money, washing clothes, copying, buying tickets, paying utilities, buying over-the-counter drugs, buying makeup remover, delivering express delivery and so on.

For special customer groups, some chain convenience stores will also launch theme stores. For example, Rosen launched Happy Rosen for children, Natural Rosen for health care doctors and Rosen diners for remote areas.

No wonder some Japanese feel happy in convenience stores. This is a caring micro society!

Small shops and convenience stores in China

Convenience stores in Chinese mainland started late, and the earliest 7- 1 1 appeared in Shenzhen in 1992. However, with the rapid development of cities in recent years, convenience stores have mushroomed.

Before the convenience store appeared, there were similar stores called grocery stores or grocery stores in China, but more of them were simply called "small shops". Although the storefront is small, it is well-equipped, and there are all kinds of daily necessities such as rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, which is an effective guarantee for the surrounding residents to solve their urgent needs.

Most of these small shops are husband-and-wife shops, and the owner's family has a harmonious relationship with the surrounding residents, which is a unique landscape of the humanistic society.

However, compared with convenience stores, small stores have many shortcomings, such as opaque supply, irregular management, irregular short business hours and inadequate decoration. After the appearance of convenience stores, the living space of small stores has been squeezed out, and small stores have a tendency to be replaced by convenience stores. There are also some small shops that directly imitate the decoration of chain stores and change their names to convenience stores, but their essence is still a canteen in a convenience store coat.

The development of domestic convenience store industry takes the route of "the city surrounds the countryside". The earliest convenience stores appeared in first-and second-tier cities, mostly overseas chain convenience store brands. Later, because of the popularity of this retail model, many local convenience store brands were established in China, which formed a trend of convenience stores blooming.

Domestic convenience store brands and rankings

According to the list of "Top 2020 Convenience Stores in China 100" issued by China Chain Store & Franchise Association, there are local convenience store brands all over the country.

The first place is not the whole family or Rosen, but Yi Jie, a convenience store owned by Sinopec. Friends who don't travel by car in Yi Jie may not be familiar with it, but this convenience store has been opened all over the country with more than 27,000 stores relying on gas stations. Also relying on the convenience store brand of the gas station, there is a third Kunlun hospitality.

The second place is Meiyijia, a well-known convenience store brand in Guangzhou, which was founded in 1997. Up to now, it has more than 20,000 stores and is the most successful local convenience store mobile phone in China.

The well-known big brand family, Rosen, 7- 1 1, ranks 5, 6 and 8 respectively, and the number of stores is only over 2,000, indicating that overseas convenience store brands only develop their business in first-and second-tier cities, but have not penetrated into third-and fourth-tier cities. In other words, the convenience store market in third-and fourth-tier cities has been seized by local convenience store brands.

But this does not mean that the domestic convenience store market is saturated, on the contrary, it is at the beginning of the outbreak period. According to the experience of developed countries, when the per capita GDP reaches 1 ten thousand dollars, the development of convenience stores will usher in an explosive period. In 2020, the per capita GDP of many first-and second-tier cities in China has reached or is approaching this figure.

The density of convenience stores may eventually reach one store for every 3,000 people. Obviously, there is still a lot of room for the development of convenience stores in China. Facing the objective market prospect, convenience stores are indeed the outlet in the eyes of capital, but people standing at the outlet may not take off.

2065438+August 2008, the convenience store next door closed overnight 168 stores; Beijing 13 1 convenience store burned 40 million yuan in five months, and the founder was detained; 165438+1In mid-October, the largest full-time convenience store in Beijing turned to asset inventory and sought to sell. In just over a year, 200 unmanned convenience stores across the country suffered from Waterloo, which quickly burned 4 billion and became victims.

In the past few years, the convenience store industry has experienced a period of "barbaric growth", and some painful failure cases have finally calmed down the capital and seriously explored how to take the road of domestic convenience stores.

From the consumer's point of view, some convenience stores in China have actually taken an interesting new path. Personally, the strangest brand is Suning Store.

Different from other convenience stores located near office buildings and business districts, Suning likes to drive convenience stores into the community and adopt the offline entity +APP model, which is somewhat similar to Boxma Xiansheng.

The most special thing is that when you walk into Suning store, you will find that it is not snacks, but daily necessities and vegetables. ......

In addition, Suning has not forgotten the signboard of "Suning Appliance". Suning Store also provides home appliance repair, second-hand housing, finance and other services. Perhaps Suning store is more like a grain store, more like a community service center than a convenience store. Ha ha.

Some small things in the convenience store

When it comes to the memory of convenience stores, what impressed me the most was Halloween one year. That day, I carefully matched a wizard's top hat to go to morning class.

Of course, I will go to the convenience store to buy some breakfast before class. My strange clothes naturally attracted passers-by to see me all the way. To be honest, the feeling of being stared at by others is quite subtle.

At the checkout counter, the clerk suddenly pointed to my hat and said with a smile, "I thought you were a magician!" " What a lovely hat! "

At that moment, I was a little surprised and a little happy, as if all the bad feelings caused by being stared at by passers-by had been solved. The praise of the clerk in the convenience store suddenly made me understand that maybe the stranger's eyes were not malicious, maybe they were also praising, but they just didn't have a chance to talk.

The clerk worked in the convenience store near the school for a long time. I think he also remembered many people's faces and preferences and passed on many interesting stories, just like in the mv. He is also a familiar stranger in many people's lives and will give them confidence and encouragement at some unexpected moments.

From that moment on, the convenience store is not only a food supplement station that can soothe my longing, but also a gentle place that gives me goodwill and peace of mind. I began to long for the warmth of strangers.

Write it at the end

Is the emergence of convenience stores inevitable? I think the answer is yes.

Convenience store is something that appears with the development of social economy and culture. It is a place that cares for all strangers, respects all lifestyles and embraces all emotions.

Whether it's students who need to stay up late to catch up with ddl, strangers who are frustrated and can't find a rest, or elites who come and go in a hurry, everyone has a little more support and confidence because of this small world.

Every convenience store with warm lights in the middle of the night is an open arm of a city to the soul of freedom.

Image: From the Internet

Text: Yang carp

Reference article:

@ 36Kr "Will the convenience store come to an end? early

@ 嗶嗶嗶嗶嗶 How "perverted" are convenience stores in Japan? Just have a look.

@ 中中中 "I visited convenience stores in Japan and found that convenience stores in China are afraid of fakes."

The history of convenience store development

Pay attention to the world of reason and irrationality and check the graphic version!