Editor's Note: In this issue of CSP Daily News, we offer three views of a new c-store concept, Japan's Famima!! The story below describes the cool factor of the California stores, while a connected slide show (click button below to download) offers a guided tour. Finally, for a related story that provides a Q&A with a self-confessed Famima!! fanatic, click here.
LOS ANGELES -- Anyone manufacturing that magical hip factor, that it thing, that buzz, needs to take a page from Famima!! The mega-global c-store retailer from Japan has attracted the attention of the U.S. convenience industry with its entry into the market last year, having opened several stores in the Los Angeles area in recent months.
A visit to the company's Long Beach, Calif., site in mid-January proved to be an eye-opener. Yes, it's a convenience store in many wayscooler doors, candy, snacks, even the trendier Starbuck feel of gourmet coffee, hard-wood floors and seating area. But more importantly, it has a mix of Japanese- and Asian-tied products, novelty dispensers and signage that sets the format apart from other retail experiences in the United States.
It's like a convenience store, but instead of hot dogs on a roller grill, you get bao [cooked meat encased in a doughy bun], said Celia Winstead, a self-proclaimed hipster and L.A. screenwriter who finds herself hunting for the latest thing each time she visits a Famima!! store.
Winstead told CSP Daily News that she noticed the Famima!! name appearing on blogs the minute the first stores opened, garnering Internet buzz and even a mention in a late-fall issue of Esquire magazine.
I never used to go into convenience stores because they didn't have anything I wanted, she said. But Famima!! has all these unusual things, like they have this cake called Whole Lotta Banana,' which is bananas and cream rolled up in cake. It's phenomenal!
The feel of the store is definitely upscale, with the Long Beach location having high ceilings and a linear, contemporary interior. An open display case has authentically prepared sushi, with everything from maki rolls to cone-shaped sushi. Mixed into the typical American brand-name snacks are Japanese-style products. For instance, in the cooler next to the Dove bars are dollops of ice cream encased in mochi (a thin rice dough), with the packaging all in Japanese, nothing in English to explain the product with the exception of a photo. The juxtaposition of Japanese items next to American ones allows for a visual, connect-the-dots comparison, and without words, it encourages the adventurous to try the Japanese version.
While some retailers may disregard Famima!! as a niche location, appealing to certain ethnic demographics. That's not the case, according to Winstead, a woman of Filipino descent. My white friends told me about Famima!! before I went to one.
She said the concept seems to have transcended the ethnic appeal and moved to a broader audience. Observing shoppers in the store on a mid-January Sunday, three teenagers in goth hairstyles giggled, picked items up and closely examined them before moving on. Next to the teens, a young couple shopped for lunch, and next to them, an older couple walked through the store.
While all the shoppers in the store at the time where Caucasian, the customers' range in age and lifestyle was interesting and reflective of the product mix, one of juxtaposed harmony. Next to the magazine rack is a wall of greeting cards from Papyrus; stocked near the Listerine is Japanese soap; next to the turkey sandwiches, sushi.
And yet, despite its innovation, the store sticks to industry basics here in the United States, including hot foods such as paninis, gourmet coffee, a Kodak digital photo kiosk, natural and caffeinated energy drinks, and large, clean restrooms. With regards to the restrooms, the staff mounted a check-off list inside the room next to the door that allowed employees to sign off on having cleaned periodically during the day.
Obviously, directly transplanting the Japanese version of a Famima!! store in America would not have worked. But the U.S. version appeared to echo beyond ethnicity and into a level of chic that people on this side of the Pacific are finding irresistible.
For a photo slideshow of the Long Beach, Calif., Famima!! store, click on the Download Now button below.
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