Convenience shop

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Convenience store (7-Eleven) in Lund , Sweden

A convenience shop (also: convenience center, convenience store, mini market ), formerly also “mixed goods” shop, is a form of operation in the retail sector .

These include small-scale shops whose range is rather high-priced, narrow (i.e. a few product groups are covered) and flat (i.e. only a small selection within the covered product groups) and focuses on the food sector and, in particular, on products to be consumed immediately ( convenience food ).

Often, however, additional smaller services (e.g. order acceptance for mail order companies, lottery acceptance points or postal agencies ) are also offered. Convenience shops rely on the convenience of their customers and are often tied to external frequency feeders (train stations, petrol stations). In Germany in particular, you can also benefit from the particularly liberal opening times at these locations ( 24/7 ). Convenience shops also include kiosks .

The importance of this type of business has risen sharply in recent years (sales in Germany over € 20 billion, October 2005). They are to be seen as competition to traditional food retailers as well as to catering establishments (bakeries, fast food restaurants).

Assortments

  • confectionery
  • Drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)
  • Cigarettes / tobacco products
  • Food
  • Calling cards
  • Magazines
  • Snacks / baked goods

Depending on the type of distribution, tobacco products / cigarettes achieve around 50% of shop sales. Telephone and prepaid cards for cell phones have also achieved a large share of sales in recent years, although their importance for shop operators has now declined again.

Petrol station shops in particular are currently expanding their range of snacks and baked goods. In principle, petrol station operators conclude appropriate partnership agreements with retailers. For example, Aral and REWE have agreed to equip around 1000 of the company's own Aral filling stations with REWE TO GO stations by 2021, which in most cases offer 24/7 operation and each have around 1200 items in stock.

Distribution types

Kiosk in Cologne-Ehrenfeld

In Germany one speaks commonly of convenience shops in the following types of retail:

The small-scale grocery stores in particular are currently in the process of developing into convenience shops due to the liberalization of shop opening times . A 24/7 operation, as z. B. is common in the USA or Japan, the German shop opening hours (with a few exceptions) do not allow. Various German retail groups are increasingly developing retail formats that will meet future convenience requirements and have no additional frequency feeders such as petrol stations or train stations. Market leader Lekkerland showed that developing and implementing such stand-alone concepts is not easy . After a few months, Lekkerland stopped multiplying the announced concept called "Everyday". Another stand-alone solution under the Aral brand was also discontinued after around 18 months. The concepts shop'n go, Spar Express and IK-Ihr Kaufmann of the MCS group and Spar have established themselves at the moment .

Often other retail forms are also used with the above Assortments also referred to as convenience shops. In the trade press one speaks more of the "New Channels" and means:

  • Video stores
  • Canteens
  • bakeries
  • Beverage pick-up markets

Since these retail forms only offer small parts of the range of the original convenience stores, an appropriate delimitation should be made.

Convenience stores in Japan

Japan's first 7-eleven

In Japan , convenience stores are known by their abbreviation Kombini (also Konbini ) or Combini (also Conbini ) ( コ ン ビ ニ ). In these you can not only purchase items for daily life, but also pay your electricity and telephone bills. You can also have parcels delivered in these combinations. Often there are several Kombini in the same chain in close proximity, so that the distribution of goods is cheaper and more frequent. This strategy is called dominant politics ( ド ミ ナ ン ト 政策 , dominanto seisaku ). In 2007 there were 44,542 station wagons in Japan, of which 12,034 were 7-eleven . The next largest retail chains are Lawson and FamilyMart . The total turnover is 7.8 trillion yen (≈ 47 billion euros, as of the end of 2007).

Convenience stores in South Korea

In South Korea , the largest convenience store chains are CU (10,106 stores, as of Q1 2016), GS25 (10,040 stores) and 7-Eleven (8,227 stores). As of July 2017, there were 37,539 convenience stores in South Korea, making the country more dense than Japan.

Well-known convenience shop brands

  • 7-Eleven (mainly in East Asia and North America, but also widespread in Northern Europe)
  • Spar Express (Express variant of Spar among others in Germany and Austria, can be found mainly in train stations and petrol stations)
  • Lawson (Japan)
  • FamilyMart (Japan and other Asian countries)
  • Nah & gut (neighborhood shop brand of Edeka )
  • nahkauf (neighborhood shop brand of the Rewe Group)
  • Rewe To Go (express shop version from Rewe , especially at petrol stations and in city centers)
  • Migrolino ( Migros convenience shop brand )
  • Żabka (Poland)

In popular culture

The Japanese writer Sayaka Murata published the novel Die Ladenhüterin (original コ ン ビ ニ 人間 Konbini Ningen ) in 2016 in which an outsider is socially integrated into society through her work in a convenience store.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Susanne Amann: Comeback for mom and pop around the corner. In: Spiegel Online . September 8, 2007, accessed October 23, 2012 .
  2. ↑ "REWE To Go" will be introduced at up to 1,000 stations. Retrieved June 11, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Aral, Rewe: The hot fight for the gas stations . ( handelsblatt.com [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  4. ↑ コ ン ビ ニ エ ン ス ス ト ア 調査 . In: Nikkei.net. July 23, 2008, Retrieved November 2, 2008 (Japanese).
  5. ↑ Park Jin-yeong: GS25-CU '1 만 점포' 시대… 일상 을 파고든 '편의점 열풍'. In: MoneyToday. July 12, 2016, accessed May 21, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Kim Choong-ryung: Korea's Convenience Store Density Even Higher Than Japan's. In: Chosun Ilbo . August 14, 2017, accessed May 21, 2018 .
  7. ↑ The keeper. In: Aufbau Verlag . Retrieved May 21, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Ronald Düker: The uniform in person. A love story from the deep-freeze shelves of the heart: the brilliantly cold novel "The Store Keeper" by the Japanese writer Sayaka Murata. In: Zeit Online . February 28, 2018, accessed May 21, 2018 .

literature

  • Sarah Auer, Roman M. Koidl : Convenience Stores, the retail form of the future . Deutscher Fachverlag, 1997, ISBN 3-87150-492-0 .
  • Matthias Gumbart: Relevant Success Factors for the Implementation of Convenience Stores in Germany and their Development in the German Market. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-668-66630-6 .

Web links