convenience store

crack (drug)

toilet

clogging the toilet

grocery store

cashier

is a profitable mini-market, so named because it conveniently spares armed robbers the trouble of engineering a heist at the local bank.

A profitable mini-market, so named because it conveniently spares armed robbers the trouble of engineering a heist at the local bank.

is, in Japan, the result of the unrelenting pressures of rapid growth in the 1960s which hastened the breakup of the extended family, swelled the ranks of singles inhabiting tiny one-room apartments in the Japanese city.

The unrelenting pressures of rapid growth in the 1960s hastened the breakup of the extended family, swelled the ranks of singles inhabiting tiny one-room apartments in the city , and spawned a huge proliferation of 24hour convenience stores across the land. Exhausted from working mandatory overtime month in and month out, people trudged back to their inner-city hutches in the dead of night and quelled their grumbling stomach- with instant food. It was a forced march without stint or letup. People lived miserable lives like cowboys in a western, subsisting on leathery jerky and hardtack. Emergency war­ time living conditions and rations became the everyday norm, some of the food products of the time seemed as if they had been inspired by the tasteless freeze-dried stuff that astronauts carry into space.

, in Japan, is a business that, in the 1990s began to sell itself as locally situated takeout stores, offering speedy, non-cloying service to their patrons, and promoting 'friendliness' to all customers while toning down the individualized attention that was a hallmark of small retail service.

For example, while consumers still desire fresh, quality food, they combine home cooked meals with prepared, store bought foods that are faster to make and cheaper than meals taken at a restaurant. Many small businesses, including restau- rants and cafeterias (shokudo_), closed during the 1990s. The konbini became a place where people looking for food late at night or early in the morning could turn for nourishment. Konbini sold themselves as locally situated takeout stores, offering speedy, non-cloying service to their pa- trons, and promoting 'friendliness' to all customers while toning down the individualized attention that was a hallmark of small retail service.

Japan

Japanese culture

Japanese society

is an integral institution in Japanese daily life with approximately 55,000 locations - more numerous than banks, employing more employees than department stores, more versatile than the vending machines, speedier than the supermarket, and closer than the post office.

There are approximately 55,000 convenience stores operating in Japan today. Arguably no commercial establishment plays as integral a role in people's daily existences as this ubiquitous type of shop. Konbini are more plentiful than banks, a larger employer than department stores, more versatile than the vending machine, speedier than the supermarket and closer than the post office . . Most major generchains remain open 24-hours a day 365 days per year. Between 1995 and 2005, konbini doubled in number and are currently a '7.7 trillion a year industry (Abe 2002:186).

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