Convenience store
The stores may also offer money order and wire transfer services, along with the use of a fax machine or photocopier for a small per-copy cost.
[12] In the United States, convenience stores are sometimes the only businesses near an interstate highway exit where drivers can buy any kind of food or drink for miles.
Stores may offer services such as ATMs, "click & collect", gas bottle exchange, money transfer and lottery tickets.
Brands include Carrefour City, Casino Shop, Coccimarket, Daily Monop', Franprix, G20, Leader Price Express, Marché Plus, Sherpa, Sitis, Spar, Utile, Vival... (see Magasin de proximité [fr]).
In North Rhine-Westfalia people call the same kind of shop either Kiosk, like the Finnish, (using the word in a way differing from the rest of Germany, where "Kiosk" usually means only stall-like buildings or other very small window-selling shops which are not entered by customers and which sell either newspapers and magazines or snacks and cigarettes, or a combination of these, but no household goods) or Trinkhalle ("drinking hall"), although they are not pubs, as the name might suggest.
[21] Kirana are typically family-owned stores that operate in fixed locations and carry both basic food and non-food items.
Due to local government restrictions in Indonesia, usually convenience stores may only be built at least 500 meters (1,600 ft) from the nearest traditional market.
[23] Foreign chains like Family Mart, Circle K or Lawson, on the other hand, have their stores in big cities and cater to a specific lifestyle instead of focusing on "convenience".
Convenience stores (コンビニエンスストア, konbiniensu sutoa), often shortened to konbini (コンビニ), developed at a tremendous rate in Japan.
Depending on the brand (i.e. 7–11 is slightly different from Family Mart), consumers will have to go to any convenience store and finalise the purchase, which can be either at the cashier or at the kiosk.
Multiple providers offer konbini as checkout option for foreign companies selling online in Japan, such as Adyen, Degica and Ingenico ePayments.
[31][32] Other convenience shops in the country are myNEWS.com, 99 Speedmart, KK Super Mart, Quick and Easy and MyMart (owned by Mydin).
[citation needed] Items sold at such convenience shops usually range from pre-made local food like nasi lemak, onigiri, buns, snacks, toiletries, drinks, a limited amount of alcohol, newspapers, magazines, slushies, cup noodles, ice cream, hot food, oden, game reload and mobile top up cards.
They also provide items in smaller quantities than would be offered for sale in larger stores and markets; for example, selling single cigarettes along with full packs.
In 2022 Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the Law and Justice party, said that the Polish ruling government might buy Żabka convenience store from CVC Capital Partners.
Major brands of convenience stores in Russia are Pyatyorochka ("little 5") with over 10000 shops functioning,[42] Monetka ("little coin"), "Magnit u doma", "Krasnoe i Beloe" and Diksi.
The situation improved in 1986 with a new Housing & Development Board (HDB) tendering system, which allowed 7-Eleven to secure shops without having to bid too high a price.
Also competing for customers are Hi-Life, a Taiwanese chain, and OK Mart, a local version of Circle K. Because they are found everywhere, convenience stores in Taiwan provide services on behalf of financial institutions and government agencies, such as collection of city parking fees, utility bills, traffic violation fines, and credit card payments.
[67] The corner shop in the United Kingdom grew from the start of the Industrial Revolution, with large populations moving from the agricultural countryside to newly built model townships and later terraced housing in towns and cities.
Many well-known high street retail brands, such as Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's and latterly Tesco, originated during the Victorian era as simple, family-owned corner shops.
The reign of the corner shop and the weekly market started to fade post–World War II, with the combination of the personal motor car and the introduction from the 1950s onwards of the American-originated supermarket format.
The market shift in price and convenience led to the establishment of common trading brands operating as virtual franchises to win back the consumer, including: Budgens, Costcutter, Londis, Nisa and SPAR.
[70] From the late-1960s onwards, many such shops started to be owned by expatriate African-born Indians, expelled from their homelands by the newly independent countries' rulers (see Expulsion of Asians from Uganda).
The items offered for sale tend to be similar despite store brand, and almost always include chips, milk, coffee, soft drinks, bread, snacks, ice cream, candy, gum, cigarettes, lip balm, condoms, phone cards, maps, magazines, newspapers, small toys, car supplies, feminine hygiene products, cat food, dog food and toilet paper.
Wherever the service station happens to be naturally located, these now crude and seemingly insignificant units will grow and expand into various distributing centers for merchandise of all sorts.
One notable exception is fast-growing regional chain Sheetz, which until the late 2010s sold some soft-core pornographic material such as Playboy, Penthouse, and Playgirl.
Some convenience stores may limit access inside at night, requiring customers to approach a walk-up window to make purchases.
The main dangers are that almost all convenience stores only have one person working night shift; most of the transactions are in cash; and easily resold merchandise, such as liquor, lottery tickets and cigarettes, are on site.
In the Canadian province of Quebec, dépanneurs (often referred to as "deps" in English) are often family-owned neighbourhood shops that serve similar purposes.
For example, in Los Angeles, a local chain operates neighborhood grocery stores that fill a niche between a traditional supermarket and convenience shop.
