Japan retailer Trial to acquire supermarket Seiyu for ¥380 bil

Seiyu has gone downhill in recent years. My nearest one is almost empty while OK Store and Ozeki has long queues at the check out. I'm guessing it will be gone soon as it is considerably more expensive than other options for exactly the same products.

Seiyu was much cheaper compared to most other supermarkets during the 2010 - 2018 era. But then its prices started to go up and became higher than other supermarkets and in the process they lost many customers. Also they used yo have reasonably priced products from abroad ( I remember buying 2 Liters bottle of 100% cranberry juice for 450¥ until 2018 but then they stopped selling it. Also used to buy Tide laundry detergent, ice cream from abroad, peanut butter, and also rice from Australia for such bargains. All these are no longer being sold in Seiyu.

Seiyu is like Nissan, loser in a rapidly consolidating and highly competitive market. Turns out shrinking and aging populations don't consume that much and less so every year!

Discount supermarket chains are killing it. TRIAL and Gyomu are the go-to grocery stores these days.

Gyomu a franchise model, that explains cost efficiency, actual owners running stores, assume TRIAL the same?

Just had a TRIAL store popup in my area of Tokyo, still need to check it out, now more motivated to do so!

24h Seiyu is a life saver.

The only Trial I've been (Chiba) was like a pooly lit Target, huge but a bit dark so no enjoyment in finding new stuff. Prices were also average.

OK Store all the way.

I love the "mini Costco" Lopia store, just a shame they only accept cash, otherwise I'd head there every other day of the week on my way home to grab one of they huge & yummy 'osozai'

I'd better stock up on the Asda fruit'n'nut chocolate before they stop selling it.

I was a bit miffed that the price had gone up to 480 yen but then I realized that it's actually less than the new UK price plus JP consumption tax. The price rise, it was 270 or so in 2020, is just the UK price rise plus the fall in the yen.

At one point, Seiyu also sold a treasure hunt's worth of imported products, super cheap Scottish craft beer, chocolate coated cinder toffee, etc. but most of em disappeared.

Seiyu's own brand curries are quite good. I like the tomato one.

Also they used yo have reasonably priced products from abroad...

Sheppard Neame beers and Asda Chocolate which was ¥198 when it first appeared but now ¥480. More than double. ¥358 for KitKats which are ¥248 in OK Store!

Just had a TRIAL store popup in my area of Tokyo, still need to check it out, now more motivated to do so!

It used to have really low quality vibes, but in the past couple of years their offerings seem to have improved a lot.

Also they used yo have reasonably priced products from abroad

You can say the same about Costco Japan. Its the result of having a weak currency. The frozen tilipia fillets, great for fish'n'chips, used to be 1300 yen. They're now 2800. The bulgogi bake, a big and super tasty philly cheesesteak style bread-shaped calzone thing, used to be 400 but is now 880.

The price of plain udon has over doubled in ten years, from 17 yen or so to 40 to 50, so its not just imported items.

It turns out store price increases detailed in comments above, inflation consumers feel daily, mainly stem from BOJ money printing and Global Ukraine Proxy War destroying ALL currencies 'Real' Asset Purchasing Power, but especially the Yen relative to the US$ etc.

Anyone with children, knows the grocery reality, kids eat a LOT. Long gone are days where main weekly grocery shopping could sometimes be less than 10K Yen, now parents just hope it's not OVER 20K Yen!

For elderly, as they don't eat much, so not that big a deal

Don't know much about Seiyu and maybe I'm wrong, but I think they were the first bigger player who put a big bet on home delivery services including internet orders, when such remote supermarket shopping still was only a niche. Installing such a system and infrastructure like an own car fleet must have cost a significant amount, maybe in the long run it turns now out that the pioneer role cost a too big amount.

Seiyu was once owned by Walmart.

@wallace--the article says it was completely owned by Walmart from 2008 to 2021, then 15 percent stake until the present sale. I went into Seiyu a few times in that era and I thought the dark blue trim on shelves and English pop BGM were a bit like old school Wally World. Their latest supercenters are the size of massive warehouses, so they provide mobility carts at the front door for those American shoppers who have trouble with long walks.

FYI after haircut with kids this afternoon, who're now napping, went by Seiyu, because of this JT article today.

Basically, not price competitive, except for VERY few items, like Greek yogurt and alcohol including my red wine.

Seiyu has same problem as Nissan, bad fundamentals and VERY few potential buyers, who likely don't want the headache and risk of taking on a money losing business and hoping they can find efficiencies in a rapidly shrinking aging market buying less every day.

Trial must have a new plan, as nobody else seems to have had a clue. Suspect they'll ditch the SEIYU brand and simply convert to their store format, massively accelerating their expansion plans. Less than $2B is far cheaper than recent SEIYU sales transactions.

Let's wait and see, then I'll have two new Trial's close to my house, their growth is impressive given the shrinking market, I'm guessing a franchise model like Gyomu.