When I was a management consultant we would read briefs written from other teams around the world. The Japanese teams were always raving about both the convenience stores and vending machines in Japan as world leaders in retailing.
Given that your average bodega in North America contains questionable food of uncertain age and most vending machines are variations on Coca Cola, I've always been a bit skeptical. However, being here has made me a convert.
Kings of Convenience
Your typical Japanese city is dotted with 7-Elevens (do not confuse it with the North American version), Family Marts and Lawson Stations (in Tokyo you also get the more upscale "Natural" Lawson).
In addition to drinks, snacks, etc., these stores sell a lot of fresh food. The triangles below are seaweed-wrapped rice with a vegetable/meat/fish core. Needless to say, you have to turn over your inventory pretty quickly to stock that:
Same for the fresh croissants, noodles, fried chicken, etc. that can be found in most of these stores.
There are also ingenious heated racks for serving you hot beverages:
I highly recommend the Boss coffee in a can.
However, the kicker for me was that you can buy Muji in Family Mart stores:
New Yorkers and Londoners are crazy for Muji and it routinely sells there for outrageous prices across a very limited line of goods. In a convenience store - a convenience store! - in Tokyo you can buy more of their products than you can in NYC. Those are shirts in the lower left; underwear above them. Stationery in the middle. On the right are snacks (delicious cheese pretzels; yogurt-covered cherries) with noodles and sauces below them.
NYC and LDN: eat your heart out.
Cointastic
Because Japan's so safe, they have vending machines for everything. There are your traditional drinks (and yes, that is Tommy Lee Jones for Suntory; Lost in Translation was not a joke):
There are also cigarettes:
And my personal favourite, booze:
The fact that a beer/liquor vending machine does not:
a) Get broken into all the time
b) Lead to drunken youths lounging in the streets
tells you something about the national psyche here.
One other cool thing about some of the vending machines here is that you can pay with your cellphone. (Yet another potential line of business overlooked by North American cellphone companies).
The vending machines here are also not limited to chilled drink cans. This one will make you a hot coffee or a milk shake:
Here's a shot of showing just how many different drinks you get in each of these vending machines. Compare that to your typical 8 flavours (two of which are usually the most popular one) back home:
