At 7-Eleven convenience stores in Japan, shoppers can get high-quality food items and an assortment of alcohol while paying their bills, sending a package or printing documents.RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP/Getty Images
Stephen Nagy is a professor of politics and international studies at Japan’s International Christian University.
The Canadian convenience store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.’s bid to acquire Japan’s Seven & i Holdings (hereafter 7-Eleven), which operates more than 85,000 stores worldwide, should be seen as an opportunity to inculcate badly needed quality into the North American convenience-store ecosystem and a new perspective on what a convenience store can and should be in a community.
The sad reality is that Canadian convenience stores just don’t compare in terms of quality, price and services offered, let alone customer service.
To illustrate, visiting 7-Eleven stores in Asia, you are instantly surprised by how local the products are. In Japan, you can get relatively high-quality sushi rolls, bento boxes and an assortment of alcohol while paying your bills, sending a package by express mail or printing your résumé. You can even buy socks, underwear, bandages or batteries at 7-Eleven stores.
Similarly, in 7-Elevens in South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, you can do most of the same while you purchase Korean barbecue chicken, lychee Slurpees, pho or steamed buns stuffed with pork sisig.
As opposed to aisles being lined with fructose-based cola and energy drinks, chocolate bars and bags of potato chips, 7-Elevens in Asia offer fresh, high-quality food and non-sugar-based drinks at reasonable prices for customers.
They are also actually convenient. You can pay by a variety of means including Neanderthaloid credit cards and cash still common in North America or a plethora of digital payment systems linked to your smartphone.
The standards that customers have of 7-Elevens and other convenience stores in Asia are sky high. They want fresh food and seasonal treats that not only are delicious but look good, too. They want a continuum of choices and products to meet their everyday needs, and they want a one-stop store they can rely on 365 days a year, which is clean, safe and inexpensive.
On my last visit back to Calgary, I had to go to a Circle K convenience store to buy batteries and then a neighbouring store to post mail. Neither had healthy food choices so I had to go to yet another store to purchase food that was fresh and not processed or prepackaged. The experience included finding parking each time, traffic and staff that growled more than they spoke.
Canadians deserve better.
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Japan’s love for convenience stores key to Couche-Tard’s 7-Eleven quest
Alimentation Couche-Tard’s bid to purchase Japan’s 7-Eleven is an opportunity to reshape the convenience-store landscape in North America by applying 7-Eleven Japan’s key performance indicators (KPIs) to the North American convenience-store market.
What does that mean for Canadians?
That means working with local businesses to feature local products and combining the services of many businesses into one, such as postal, bill payment and other customer needs. It could also mean offering healthier choices to customers through the establishment of new supply chains that feature local produce including eggs, vegetables and fruits.
In B.C., that could mean local 7-Elevens would offer seasonal fruit from the Okanagan. In the Prairie provinces, that could mean seasonal products with an assortment of berries that are found throughout the region. In Ontario and Quebec, one could imagine maple syrup-related and other agricultural products distinctive to each province.
It means we waste less time on the road going from different shop to different shop to get the things we need. This is good for our sanity but also for the environment and our communities. It concentrates services into one shop that meets a variety of consumer needs.
Adopting some of 7-Eleven Japan’s KPIs will also introduce innovation and localization by franchise owners, allowing them to compete through the personalization of their convenience stores based on local community needs and networks. Canadians in the Atlantic provinces or in the Yukon want products in their stores that meet their regional needs, not some cookie-cutter approach to franchises common in North America.
If the acquisition is successful, it is Alimentation Couche-Tard’s opportunity to seize or squander. By thoughtfully blending the best parts of both 7-Eleven Japan and Alimentation Couche-Tard, we could see a convenience-store revolution that benefits Canadians and the local economy.