Global Market Surferby INTAGE Inc

<Report from overseas office> [Thailand] Is 7-Eleven Invincible?　Convenience store situation in Bangkok

Introduction.

My home is about a 20-minute walk from my office. The closest station to my office is Sala Daeng station on the BTS (elevated train line), which is surrounded by an office district with many Japanese companies, and if you go to the back of the station, you can find Taniya Street, which is famous among Japanese people for its many Japanese restaurants.

Halfway between my office and home, there is Lumpini Park. With a moderate size of 3km around and surrounded by greenery, many office workers in the area enjoy jogging after 5pm. At first, I thought there was a marathon going on, but it turned out that everyone was running as part of their daily routine. The health boom will continue to gain momentum.

The area around my house is lined with about 30-story condominiums and global brand hotels, making it a mixed area of tourists and foreign residents as well as Thais. What are the differences between the three 7-Eleven stores located within this 20-minute walk, or less than about 2 kilometers?

7-Eleven Comparison by Area

●7-Eleven in the office district near the company

In Japan, 7-Eleven stores offer self-service freshly brewed coffee, but this store is frequented by office workers, so they have introduced a style in which the clerks make more than 30 different types of cafes on the spot. Of course, there are other 7-Eleven stores that have café corners, but this is the only one among the three 7-Eleven stores introduced here where the staff makes the cafés. Prices start at 60 baht (about 200 yen) per cup, which is not as cheap as the boxed lunches that can be bought for 30 or so baht each, but compared to Starbucks, which charges 120 baht (about 400 yen) per cup, it is reasonable.

Thai people often buy snacks to share with their colleagues. In most 7-Eleven stores, cosmetics are lined up near the entrance, but when you enter this store, the first thing you see is a shelf of snacks on special sale. There are also some rather expensive baked goods, and the product mix is designed to meet the needs of snacking.

There are food stalls in front of the store for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and especially at dinner time, chairs and tables are set out, transforming the store into a bit of a diner. Many office workers can be seen having their dinner at the stalls in front of 7-Eleven, making it a useful substitute for a "refrigerator," with the stalls serving food and 7-Eleven serving drinks. Not only at 7-Eleven, but in many cases, street-side convenience stores are lined with food stalls, maintaining a symbiotic relationship.

By the way, the area around Sala Daeng station is particularly exciting during the Songkran Festival held in April every year. As it is a mecca area, there are many small and large water cannons and waterproof goods on sale before Songkran. In order to avoid water damage from soaking wet customers, electronic devices such as cashiers and credit card readers should be wrapped tightly in plastic and prepared for the day.

●7-Eleven near Lumpinee Park

As I mentioned earlier, many people who enjoy jogging in the park appear on weekday evenings. Also, on weekdays as well as on weekends, runners and cyclists drive all the way to the park to enjoy the park, so this store has a larger selection of nutritional drinks and health-conscious beverages than the other two locations. From the popular soy milk to almond-based drinks and lactic acid bacteria drinks, there is a wide variety. There are also products that can be found in other stores, such as beauty drinks and those derived from swallow's nest, but the store has a stronger "health push" than other stores.

Recently, a cleaning service box was installed, which I have never seen in any other store. You put money into the box, get a receipt for the amount of money you need, and hand it to the clerk along with your clothes, and he or she will deliver them to the cleaning center on your behalf. The process of picking up the clothes is also made easier by the use of IT, linked to a smartphone. Unfortunately, however, I have yet to see anyone using this service.

●7-Eleven in the condominium district

There is a mix of residents living in the area and tourists. Compared to other stores, this store sells pillows, slightly larger toys, padlocks, and other miscellaneous items that are used in daily life or are intended for long-term residents. In fact, the first relatively large purchase I made when I moved here was actually a pillow. Some of them are provided, but I always wanted to use new ones.

One of the items in the 7-Eleven store that is designed for tourists is cosmetics and personal care products. Compared to other 7-Eleven stores, the lineup is quite large. Most of the products are packaged in screw-cap packages similar to those used for flat jelly drinks, and are mainly in quantities that can be used up in one or several times.

The most noticeable differences in the selection of products from the office area stores are probably in the toiletries, seasonings, and fresh foods. Unlike in Japan, the items are not narrowly focused, and the selection is extensive. There are more than 20 types of detergents and fabric softeners. Toilet paper is also available in large quantities per lot, with a reasonable face value. The number of diapers in a pack is small, but there are several brands on display.

Seasonings and fats are large in size, and the selection is designed for daily use. There are also several brands of rice on display. This is not the case in this area since food stalls are not allowed, but in other areas, I have seen 7-Eleven products being used as suppliers for food stalls. In this case, it is more for emergency use.

In fact, when I shopped at various stores, I found that 7-Eleven's products were not as expensive as one might expect. If you go to Big C, which is famous for its cheap sales, you can find some cheap products. For example, a can of beer is about 1 to 2 baht (about 4 to 7 yen) cheaper. However, if you weigh the effort required to save 2 baht per can against the convenience of being only 30 seconds away from home, you will realize that it is not worth the 20-minute round trip to buy a heavy case of beer.

I talked about how 7-Eleven coexists with food stalls and is used as a refrigerator. A similar use is the "outdoor drinking area. Even on weeknights, it is very common to see Thai people buying plastic cups, ice, soda water or juice, and bottles of whiskey, and sitting in a group of two to five people enjoying a soda. The plastic cups piled high on the shelves are a testament to this.

Summary

While the overwhelming number of stores is one of 7-Eleven's strengths, it is not the whole story. Seven-Eleven is constantly striving to meet the needs of consumers by carefully changing its product lineup according to its location and devising ways to display its products. Even by comparing just three stores, I was able to get a good understanding of how they are trying to make their stores more accessible and affordable by setting up special sections and offering a wide selection of products to make them more popular as "everyday shopping places.

There is no doubt that it is much more efficient to have a unified store format. However, by not completely standardizing the format, 7-Eleven has been able to minimize cannibalization among stores and respond to the unique needs of customers in each area, despite their proximity to each other, by leveraging its brand power.

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  Author profile

  Daisuke Aoba

  Male researcher in his 40s living in Thailand. He has visited more than 30 countries in the past. He believes in seeking out the best for the consumers in the country and always trying to be close to their feelings.
  He continues to post his own global gourmet posts, which are viewed about 1,000 times a day, mainly in Thailand.

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  Intege.inc

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• Sep 26, 2018
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