The 7-Eleven convenience store experience is so quintessential to modern Japan that it’s sometimes hard to recall that it’s not Japanese.
The first in Japan opened 50 years ago in Tokyo’s Toyosu, where the first item sold was a pair of sunglasses. At the time, it was the inaugural franchise store under a model imported from the U.S.; a few decades later, the Japanese konbini experience had become so successful that the Japanese offshoot bought out its U.S. parent.
But now the business could be returning to North American control, at least if Alimentation Couche-Tard gets its way. The audacious bid by the Canadian operator of Circle K for 7-Eleven’s parent firm Seven & I Holdings, which could cost as much as $86 billion according to Bloomberg Intelligence, has sent waves through the retail industry — and chills through a country where Seven, as the store is typically known, has become a national institution.