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Lawson outlets are on hand at hospitals and
other public-sector settings, as well as at every
conceivable kind of commercial venue. |
Japanese
regulations long prohibited self-service gasoline stations.
Deregulation has opened the way for consumers to fill up
their own gas tanks, and self-serve gasoline vending is
poised to grow rapidly.
Nippon Oil is Japan's biggest oil company, and
its ENEOS network of gasoline stations is the nation's largest.
Teaming with Nippon Oil gives Lawson access to a vast range
of promising locations. For the oil giant, the alliance
with Lawson increases the drawing power of its gasoline
stations.
The first Lawson-ENEOS hybrid outlet opened
in a city near Tokyo on April 18. It is a fully featured
convenience store and even includes chairs and tables to
let customers consume their purchases of food and beverages
on site. Management at Lawson is aiming to open about 10
hybrid outlets by the end of this year.
Self-service gasoline vending appears to be
an excellent fit with convenience store retailing. The store
clerks can handle the customer payments for gasoline, as
well as for purchases inside the store. That allows for
a big reduction in personnel costs and maximizes economies
for the customers.
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Japanese urbanites and suburbanites alike welcome
the convenience of Lawson's seemingly ubiquitous retailing
network. |
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More on the way
Lawson faces intense competition
in self-serve gasoline vending, as it does in its other
lines of business. Japan's convenience store retailers have
opened some 50,000 outlets, and those companies are exploring
every imaginable retailing venue in their quest for a competitive
edge. But no competitor has compiled as innovative or as
broad a range of customer services as Lawson has.
The big retailer has installed post office boxes
at its outlets throughout Japan, and it will open a store
inside a Tokyo post office in June. Lawson outlets also
are a common sight inside high-rise office buildings, where
they furnish employees with ready access to daily essentials.
Some 2,800 Lawson stores feature automatic teller machines
(ATMs) that offer access to bank accounts. Now, banks are
inviting Lawson into their branches to provide their customers
with retailing services.
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