Convenience stores are just that, convenient. Whether it’s buying used video games or pre-ordering big titles, today’s corner stores offer more than slushies and candy bars. One Japanese chain is considering one deader better.
https://kotaku.com/7-eleven-enters-the-used-video-game-business-5520259
Family Mart, which expanded to the U.S. as “Famima”, is pondering whether it should enter the funeral business, reports J-Cast (via Japan Trends). The average funeral costs around US$11,000 in Japan. Convenient stores would make it possible for families to easily (and quickly) arrange services.
Suburban retail giant Aeon (think Target or Walmart) introduced a funeral service last year with prices that start at around $3,500 and climb to over $17,000.
Japanese convenience stores aren’t simply special for their Neon Genesis Evangelion snacks and already offer consumers a wide array of services that go beyond fax machines and payphones.
https://kotaku.com/the-neon-genesis-evangelion-convenience-store-5524306/
Consumers can drop letters in a Japan post mailbox, buy concert tickets, pay their bills (gas, electronic, phone), buy cell phones, return rented DVDs, send packages, buy special Japanese New Years food that can cost $100 (and up) and more. Thus, the convenience store, or “conbini” as it’s called, is viewed a something that truly lives up its name and makes people’s lives easier. Today’s conbini is closer to a general store of old than its modern-day American counterpart.
With the population continuing to gray and those dying outnumbering those being born, adding the ability to arrange a funeral service not only seems convenient, but in Japan, as natural as buying a canned coffee or the latest hit PS3 game.
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イオンに続きファミマも検討 葬儀ビジネスの新規参入続々 [J-CASTニュース via Japan Trends] [Pic, Pic, Pic]
