This week, Seven & i Holdings, the Japanese company that operates 7-Eleven, announced that it had received an unsolicited takeover offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard, a convenience store giant in Canada.

The status of 7-Eleven stores as cornerstones of Japanese society also means that Japan is unlikely to be willing to part with them, despite increasing pressure on Japanese corporations to be open to foreign takeovers.

7-Eleven is “one of the best brick-and-mortar retailers in the world,” said Hiroaki Watanabe, an independent retail analyst. Selling 7-Eleven to Couche-Tard would be “the same for Japan as Toyota becoming a foreign company,” he said. Today, there are more than 21,000 7-Eleven stores in Japan and the company operates in 20 countries and territories. In the United States, Seven & i is looking for ways to replicate the coveted Japanese convenience store experience. One possibility: introducing ramen noodles.

Unlike Japanese konbini stores, North American convenience stores are often viewed as places for packaged snacks, beverages, and in many cases, gasoline.

When you think of hot food from a convenience store, you usually think of a lonely hot dog rotating for hours on an induction cooker. Quebec-based Couche-Tard operates many of these convenience stores in the U.S. under its Circle K brand.

Japan has long been part of Couche-Tard’s global ambitions. If Couche-Tard’s takeover is successful, it would not only be the largest acquisition of a Japanese company by a foreigner, but would also create one of the largest retail groups in the world.

After Couche-Tard’s preliminary takeover offer became known, Seven & i announced that it had set up an independent special committee to examine the offer. Analysts point to significant obstacles that would make a takeover of Seven & i unlikely.

Due to the influence of the holding company, the takeover is subject to more intensive scrutiny by the Japanese government.

There are also big differences in the way Couche-Tard and Seven & i operate convenience stores. The Asian konbini operators are known for their rapid development of new products – for example, themed items that are only available during the short cherry blossom season.

Japanese konbini operators are known for their rapid development of new products — such as themed items available only during the short cherry blossom season. A typical convenience store in Japan offers about 3,000 products, 70 percent of which are replaced annually, says analyst Watanabe.

A large part of Seven & i’s operating profit comes from its sales in Japanese convenience stores and Couche-Tard must come up with a convincing proposal showing how this core business can be improved, he said.

Watanabe once spent two weeks driving across the United States looking at convenience stores – and was not impressed. A takeover bid for 7-Eleven would be challenging because Japanese convenience stores are “totally different and unique,” he said.

The first 7-Eleven store in Japan opened in 1974 in a quiet bayside neighborhood in eastern Tokyo. On Friday mornings, the store was bustling with office workers, students, and parents with small children.

Sakura Kobayashi, 23, who works in the neighborhood, stopped by to buy a salad and an onigiri rice ball – a specialty of Japanese convenience stores. The food at 7-Eleven tasted “familiar” to her and her coworkers, she said.

Outside a 7-Eleven in central Tokyo, Yuta Matsumura, a 26-year-old office worker, ate a cream-filled pancake he had just purchased. He said he usually goes to a 7-Eleven at least three times a week, sometimes to buy lunch dishes such as beef rice bowls.

But it’s actually the sweets that attract Mr. Matsumura. “They’re not too sweet, the way we Japanese like it,” he says. “The desserts at 7-Eleven are the best.”

©2024 The New York Times News Service

First published: August 25, 2024 | 11:18 p.m. IS