Editorial article:
For Your Convenience
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You know those brightly lit stores that are everywhere in Japan, that sell triangle sandwiches and batteries around the clock? They have catchy English names such as "Lawson" or "Seven Eleven" and their walls are white and clean.
The fluorescent lights shine in the dark night. It's ten a clock. The person behind counter welcomes me in. A salaryman buys udon noodles. Crowd of young boys have gathered on the magazine section, gossiping. A young woman withdraws money from the ATM machine inside.
There are no shadows. The store is as well lit as dentist.
Convenience stores. Although they are indeed convenient, and allow one to pay bills, withdraw money and send parcels, one must wonder why there are so many of them. Shouldn't one convenience store per town be enough? Within vicinity, I can see three convenience stores near my station. And if I walk around the block, there is fourth.
Of course, I also often use the services of these well sanitized shops, because I can avoid a trip to the center by doing so. And they provide many "arubaito" jobs for students who want to earn extra money. But then, I was walking yesterday past the shop and I saw bunch plastic garbage on the street. It seems someone ate his/her lunch just outside the convenience store and decided to drop the carbage on the street.
Think about the electricity, for example. Having all these stores open around the clock must consume significant amount of electricity. Especially in summer with all that airconditioning. In addition, the food has often a lot of preservatives, and is wrapped in excessive plastic and is generally expensive. And they take a lot of landspace too.
The presence of so many convenience stores seem strange to me. I feel these stores are a sign of ignorance towards not only nature, but also the Japanese culture. It is so convenient, that even the convenience dissolve, losing it's meaning.
If Japan is truly to become "eco", as the trend word says, the concept of "convenience" should be changed into something more conscious. Too much convenience will cause world to go ruin.
Convenience store, exactly, that's as well.
Everytime I look at it at night, I feel exactly the same as you. We prefer convenience and sales too much and I feel so sorry for how much food or enegy we just consume unnecessarily... :(