7-Eleven stores in Japan offer different food options than their U.S. counterparts—snacks include ramen and onigiri rather than Slurpees, pizza, and hot dogs. Now, the world’s largest convenience store, which is owned by Japanese company Seven & I Holdings, is planning to bring popular snack foods from Asia to its U.S. locations. It recently launched a spicy miso ramen soup, and plans to bring chicken teriyaki rice balls, miso ramen, and sweet chili crisp wings to U.S. stores, according to Southern California station KTLA.
It has also partnered with Warabeya, which produces its Japanese food items, on the effort. (Last year, Warabeya announced plans to build a plant in the Midwest.)
Earlier this summer, the Wall Street Journal covered the store’s strategy in a video. The Japanese c-stores do not sell fuel, and so have always had a wider array of food products and focus on localizing food inventory to the preferences of local consumers. Plus, the Japanese stores also have a more robust distribution system that delivers fresh food sometimes more than once per day.
“One of the most interesting lessons that we’ve learned from 7-Eleven Japan is their approach to operations and to retailing which they call tanpin kanri. Tanpin kanri is basically this idea that we localize our assortment to the needs of customers. We actually help our stores localize their assortment so that they have the right balance of a consistent assortment of products that consumers and customers would expect to see nationally, as well as items in the assortment that are perfectly appropriate for a given store’s location,” said Marissa Jarratt, chief marketing and sustainability officer at 7-Eleven, in the WSJ video.
According to KTLA, 7-Eleven said: “We are constantly evolving the fresh food assortment in our stores, tailoring the offerings at each location to meet the needs and preferences of local customers. Our team draws inspiration from around the world to introduce new items like Mangonada donuts with Tajin, barbecue pork sliders, chicken curry bowls, and everything breakfast sandwiches that can be found at select 7-Eleven, Speedway, and Stripes stores across the country.”