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One advantage of the prolific Japanese convenience store (or "konbini") is that any improvement in the underlying franchise system can be rapidly deployed to al

One advantage of the prolific Japanese convenience store (or "konbini") is that any improvement in the underlying franchise system can be rapidly deployed to all franchisees (like nodes in a network). This is true of many franchises, but the konbini are exceptionally prolific, so this effect is magnified. For example, if there is an opportunity to increase efficiency, or reduce costs or environmental impact, it would be relatively easy to deploy this throughout an entire franchise, as compared with heterogenous stores. As for the issue of opening hours, labour shortages and demographic trends (the population is aging and decreasing) are significant. I am only aware of two likely solutions which are not mutually exclusive: (1) immigration; and (2) automation, ie. robots. Increasing the fertility rate might also address this issue, but seems less likely to happen.

pyrale 7y ago
I guess smaller opening times would also solve the issue. I have yet to understand why societies tolerate such things as stores open at 3am, given the productivity it has, and the implications for workers.
- TulliusCicero 7y ago
  There's nothing inherently wrong with stores open odd hours. Some people like to keep odd hours, some have to because of the nature of their job (a lot of maintenance/repair/cleaning stuff is done at night), so some stores being open works with that. And of course there are places like clubs where night hours make more sense. This situation in Japan seems unusual, usually a business would only stay open late if there was actually a reasonable amount of demand at that time.
  - pyrale 7y ago
    The "Some people like to work odd hours" is pretty tired in my opinion. Most people who work these hours are doing it out of necessity. If execs were forced to work whenever some of their employees work, their imagination about who likes what would change dramatically.

pyrale 7y ago

I guess smaller opening times would also solve the issue. I have yet to understand why societies tolerate such things as stores open at 3am, given the productivity it has, and the implications for workers.

TulliusCicero 7y ago
There's nothing inherently wrong with stores open odd hours. Some people like to keep odd hours, some have to because of the nature of their job (a lot of maintenance/repair/cleaning stuff is done at night), so some stores being open works with that. And of course there are places like clubs where night hours make more sense. This situation in Japan seems unusual, usually a business would only stay open late if there was actually a reasonable amount of demand at that time.
- pyrale 7y ago
  The "Some people like to work odd hours" is pretty tired in my opinion. Most people who work these hours are doing it out of necessity. If execs were forced to work whenever some of their employees work, their imagination about who likes what would change dramatically.