Foreign-Owned America - Yahoo! Finance I was VERY surprised about 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven Profile even confirms it I was also surprised to learn their parent (Seven & I Holdings of Japan - Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd.) owns the Sogo and Seibu department stores chains in Japan. I have visited those stores before. More corporate info at Corporate Outline | Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd..
The 7-Eleven by my house is the worst smelling 7-Eleven in the history of the world I think. It has this perfect(ly bad) mix of stale hotdogs and strong coffee that just hits you as soon as you open the door. And it's smaller than most other ones so it's all bottled up in there and you can't escape until you get back out and even then it still haunts your nose for a few more minutes!
Ito Yokado was a low-ranking Japanese department store that decided to get into convenience stores. After careful negotiations with 7-Eleven in USA they signed a deal to open franchises in Japan, only to find that the secret information they now had access to was not very relevant to Japan. The first 7-Eleven store opened only after the shopkeeper contacted Ito Yokado out of the blue and agreed to convert his family liquor store. To survive, they had to radically alter the business practices of suppliers and even invented the drink fridge with a door at the rear so that it could be filled easily. Southland Corporation was bailed out by Ito Yokado starting in the 1980's (just as the Southland Corporation had assisted Ito Yokado through tough times in the 1970's) and bought the lot in 2005. Read about it in manga form in Project X: Seven Eleven. A 7-Eleven store in Japan is a joy to behold. What other store (apart from almost every convenience store in Japan) can sell fresh rice balls, beers of the world, curry and magazines until late at night?
Yeah, having been to Japan 4x, convenience stores in Japan are quite a bit nicer than US ones. They actually sell some quality food vs. sometimes sketchy food in US ones. Some of the 7-Elevens here are kinda ghetto too. Side note: The 7-Eleven near where I used to work was temporarily converted into a Kwik-E-Mart for a month or so. I found this video of that store: . When I went, there wasn't anyone in costume, but the rest of the changes were made.
