Convenience
stores are changing with the times, shedding their image as places for young
shoppers grabbing fresh food fast, concert tickets and comic books, and
increasingly catering to older clientele.
Today
the global population is graying and people live longer, birth rates continue
in decline C-stores are evolving with consumers. They have begun revising their
offerings to suit the tastes and needs of seniors by introducing home delivery,
fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat prepared meals by day-part in
Japan and a one-stop shop where pharmacies share floor space.
Lawson’s
is testing by setting up elderly care support counters, and in a stab at
becoming social meeting spots, are offering seating and even karaoke boxes.
They opened its first outlet with a “nursing care consultation desk in
Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture. The outlet will have managers and advisers
available for consultation all day, every day of the week. The company plans to
launch another one in the prefecture by summer.”
When
the landscape changes you have to evolve.
In Japan back in “1989, people aged 29 and younger at 7-Eleven
convenience stores accounted for 63 percent of daily customers. That declined
to about 29 percent in fiscal 2013, according to recent statistics from Seven
& i Holdings Co.”
All
the While customers “50 or older, who previously represented only 9 percent of
all customers, rose to 30 percent in the same period, representing the age
bracket with the largest share, according to the statistics. FamilyMart Co.
says people 50 and older account for about 30 percent of its customers, too.”
C-store
operators are increasingly changing their food lineups to appeal to older
shoppers. They seek, for example, quality, known-to-be-safe products, including
higher-end fresh prepared food, rather than the cheap, fill-up, fuel-up roller
grill offerings once preferred by young shoppers.
One
notable change can be found Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food
offered under their respective house brands, where the companies are competing
with each other to offer healthy ingredients and those that are either locally
sourced or from a renowned region.
Who
is leading the way? 7-Eleven is the
global C-store leader and aims to remain so by evolving with consumers. They
still sell self-service coffee and doughnuts, fried chicken and other legacy fast
food offerings which remain a key sales driver, the shift is slowly underway.
According
to Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities Economic Research
Institute, “the main focus of convenience stores is not the elderly per se, but
the overall shift from young to older shoppers, which is reflected in the food
on offer.
Kubota continued “Until maybe a decade ago, the
image of convenience stores was of a place where young people away from home could
pick up food of their preference, like fast food restaurants,” …“At that point,
strategies targeting males in their 20s was important. . . . But now female
customers in their 40s and 50s are increasing.”
In
Asia top three players &-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson all have introduced home delivery services,
stocking meals and cooking ingredients aimed at meeting the demands of health
and quality conscious seniors who prefer to eat at home.
Are you
trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way? Interested in learning how Foodservice
Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating
a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation
and individualization? Email us
at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information
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