Japanese retailers turn to 'shetailers'

The floors are new, shiny, and white, and the eating counter has pink-mesh bags beside each stool, for purses or parcels.

The news rack is conspicuously empty of lurid adult comic books and bikini magazines. Missing, too, are those other convenience-store staples: alcohol, cigarettes, and cheap gift boxes of cookies.

Welcome to SCoco, Japan's first convenience store geared solely toward women. The "s" - added to the logo of the Coco chain that runs more than 900 stores in Japan - stands for "she."

It also stands for "slender, smart, and stylish," says the company's division manager. One might throw in "sales," which are so healthy that the company plans to add more such stores.

If the idea sounds frilly to a fault, consider the following: In the past five years, convenience-store sales have surpassed retail sales, with 7-Eleven Japan topping the list.

And with studies showing that it's women who are wearing the pants in this increasingly sluggish economy, retailers could be taking a cue from last year's Mel Gibson hit - trying to figure out "what women want."

Japanese women are staying single longer, earning more, and shopping at conbeni - as the popular stores are known - rather than in supermarkets. Even after they marry, women tend to control the family purse strings, often doling out weekly allowances to their husbands.

"I don't think that there's anything wrong with having a convenience store that satisfies women's needs," says store manager Katsura Sagisaka.

Japan is by most accounts slipping deeper into economic doldrums. Yesterday, the government said the country's jobless rate hit a record-high 5 percent in July, the highest unemployment figure since 1953. A day earlier, electronics maker Toshiba announced it would cut 17,000 jobs, following similar announcements by Fujitsu, NEC, and Hitachi. And, in a report due on Friday, the government's cabinet office is expected to warn that the economy is "deteriorating further," according to the Mainichi Daily News.

Whether part of Japan Inc.'s push to suck up whatever spending juice is left - or perhaps despite the impending recession - products aimed at women and teenage girls seem to be one of the country's few growth sectors.

"Since so many single women have so much purchasing power, now the question is: How to get them to spend it," says Kazuhiko Kuwabara, senior manager of consumer intelligence at Dentsu Inc., Japan's largest advertising agency.

SCoco's bento, or take-out lunches, are one example of such gender marketing. They are smaller than usual - apportioned to the average Japanese woman's appetite - and designed for the calorie-conscious. "Women like to choose from a variety of low-calorie, low-priced things," says Ms. Sagisaka, who organized a planning team to determine what the new store would offer. "No men's opinions were reflected in that," she adds. "If men's opinions were reflected, we might have had those magazines," she says, referring to the X-rated glossies commonly left in full view.

Page: 1 | 2