Daiso Sangyo, the leading 100-yen shop operator in terms of sales, intends to open 170 locations during the existing fiscal year. Runner-up Seria will open 150 outlets, while Can Do and Watts will add 80 and 115 stores respectively. The 515 shops, joined with planned store closings, will result in a net 310 openings, which would exceed the 276 net openings for the three largest convenience store chains. The previous fiscal year had a record 537 new 100-yen shops open, but the net sum amounted to 294.
The four 100-yen shop chains, which operate 7,128 outlets in total, still pale in scale when compared with the country's top three convenience stores, Seven-Eleven Japan, FamilyMart and Lawson, which oversee 51,965 stores combined. But the convenience stores are cutting back on openings in the face of labor shortages.
Partnerships with supermarkets are sustaining the 100-yen shops' expansion. Inageya, a midtier supermarket chain, drew Daiso to set up shop on the second floor of a supermarket that opened last month in Kawasaki, a city in the greater Tokyo area. 'By having a 100-yen shop sell daily necessities, we were able to expand the shopping area for deli and fresh food,' said an Inageya spokesperson. This is a classic example of a supermarket giving up on selling everyday goods and turning to a 100-yen shop to fill that need for customers on its premises.
Some other retailers have joined the bandwagon. Drugstore chain Tsuruha Drug installed 100-yen stores in about 20 of its 2,000 outlets while Shimachu, a furniture and hardware seller, started adding the shops in 2017 and now has 18 in its stores. The 100-yen shops have lured a different type of customer, a Shimachu spokesperson said. 'People from the younger generation are coming to our stores,' the spokesperson said.
Standard daily traffic at 100-yen shops hovers over 800 people, topping the 700 people at drugstores. Same-store traffic at leading convenience store chains have been below previous-year numbers for three consecutive years since 2016. Meanwhile, Seria has bested annual traffic for four years running.
The brick-and-mortar 100-yen shops are also not likely to lose customers to online shopping. 'I see more fashionable products,' said a woman in her 50s at one of the shops in Tokyo. 'I also have fun choosing among them because they're affordable.'
Amazon Japan does not present much competition to 100-yen stores whose per-customer spending averages around 600 yen because the e-commerce giant charges a delivery fee for checkout values below certain thresholds. This is precisely why physical retailers fending off competition from online sellers are wooing them to become tenants and attract customers.
A stalled purchasing power among consumers will also be a tailwind for those stores. Real wages in May decreased 1% from a year ago, the labor ministry reported Tuesday, marking the fifth month of decreases. Additionally, consumers are expected to become thriftier in the face of the planned consumption tax hike in October. Nevertheless its business model does come with a major caveat. Narrow gross margins require an ever-wider network of outlets to grow revenue and profit.
This has revealed the shops to the effect of a national worker shortage and a jump in labor costs more than other retailers. Despite turning in 7.1% growth in sales for fiscal 2018, Seria's operating profit rose only 1.9%, and the profit margin retreated 0.6 points to 9.8%. Can Do's operating profit sank for the second straight year in fiscal 2018. To cut down labor costs, Seria introduced self-checkouts at select stores in October, and will look at increasing the technology to 50 Tokyo locations this fiscal year. Daiso is installing QR readers at checkouts to reduce the time spent counting cash.
The companies offer low prices by importing goods manufactured at low cost in China or Southeast Asia. The current top four players are the survivors that weathered the yen's sharp decline against the dollar in the late 1990s, which sent procurement costs soaring. If the current trade war triggers major swings in the currency market, it could again upend the business model.
US 941 
MY 362 
CN 342 
KR 95 
AP 57 
AU 55 
GB 44 
DE 33 
