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A 7-Eleven store in Tokyo Image: iStock/winhorse
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7-Eleven to enhance security amid rise of solo workers at night

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 due to a severe labor shortage.

Or due to them being unwilling to pay fair wages or two staff!?

-6 ( +22 / -28 )

Or due to them being unwilling to pay fair wages or two staff!?

They probably can't afford to pay because their parent company, Seven i, earns tiny profits that are rapidly in decline. Rival Circle-K, however, earns about 8 times its profit with a lot fewer stores! This is why it Alimentation Couche-Tard needs to take over Japan's 7-11s -- they could afford to be pay higher wages or put on extra staff for they sake of their staffs' security.

-8 ( +12 / -20 )

It really annoys me when these franchise owners complain about rising wages. Before they sign on they knew exactly where they rely on the best margins per week, and the main margin is wages to hours worked. So expecting that the disgusting minimum wages will always be disgusting. Real wages have gone backward and the minimum wage has risen but under the rate of inflation so you get the effect of real wages buy less then when they sign on. These owners relied of the wages of the weak of society for their best producing margin. I say bad luck you can either worked more hours themselves to reduce the worker wage output which will see the worker go looking for a job with more hours. So the owner is now in the position of leaving the worker hour as it is and cop the rise in the hourly rate. Only option is to go the Franchise head and ask to rise prices which will be a battle. Or closing down. Like the Ramen owners of today. There is too many convenience store in the area and something have give. Prices or closures. simple. Moral to the story is don,t feed of the bottom of society the weak minimum wage earner.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

Seven-Eleven plans to limit the business hours when such one-man operations are allowed from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. even after the new security system is introduced, the sources said.

That should be the norm for all their outlets, at least between 1:00 and 6:00. What a waste of energy for so few customers!

13 ( +18 / -5 )

“severe labor shortage”

fake news frankly. Pay people fairly and they will work for you. There is only a shortage of companies willing to hire FULL TIME with VISA SPONSORSHIP. There are millions wanting to work bit profits and poor management hide behind this “sever shortage” nonsense.

-9 ( +15 / -24 )

Outlets operated by a single employee have become a social problem in the service sector in recent years, forcing many franchises

Outlets that unwilling to hire more than one employee, don't blame that to labor shortage please.

-12 ( +14 / -26 )

A lot of their late night customers must be buying beer and cigarettes. If vending machines could handle the age verification a bit better, they could avoid interacting with one segment of troublesome customers.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

@obladi

There's card for that.

https://s.taspo.jp/taspo/www.taspo.jp/english/index.html

-9 ( +5 / -14 )

There isn't a worker shortage in Japan. Why does JT persist with this nonsense?

-5 ( +16 / -21 )

David BrentToday  10:54 am JST

There isn't a worker shortage in Japan. Why does JT persist with this nonsense?

So, what do you call it when record number of businesses go bankrupt because they can't find people to work?

-25 ( +7 / -32 )

Let’s also not forget it was 7-Eleven who sued a franchisee in Osaka (I think) for shutting his store in the early hours because he couldn’t find anyone to do the graveyard shift

0 ( +10 / -10 )

So, what do you call it when record number of businesses go bankrupt because they can't find people to work?

You call it what it truly is: companies are refusing to pay decent wages. If there truly was a worker shortage in Japan then wages would be soaring and Japan might even loosen up its immigration policy. These business owners who complain about the (fictitious) worker shortage are like fisherman who refuse to put bait on the hook and then moan that they don’t catch any fish.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

So, what do you call it when record number of businesses go bankrupt because they can't find people to work?

When you can't afford to pay a decent living wage to attract staff. I'd call the business "poorly managed", and/or a "poor business model with little or no profit margins".

There is no labour shortage in Japan. Just a shortage of well-managed and/or good businesses offering employment. Nobody wants to work for peanuts.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

severe labor shortage.

If the likes of 7 & I (and their franchisees) were not so stingy and paid a decent salary to staff, there would be no shortage of staff, and many of these "security problems" would be not be an issue.

Like many others, I disagree that there is a "Labor shortage" in Japan. It is a salary payment shortage.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

They could close all stores between midnight and six. A few extra vending machines will make that possible.

and they must pay people decent wages. Lastly I agree with many posters here. There is no labour shortage. But many companies are overstuffed with a very low productivity rate from its employees.

a lot of unnecessary tasks and jobs still exist because of overstaffing.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Easy make these comments until you become a business owner yourself

I've seen enough people who ate their own words and become the person they used to hate

Sometimes even worse

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

towingthelineToday  01:25 pm JST

So, what do you call it when record number of businesses go bankrupt because they can't find people to work?

When you can't afford to pay a decent living wage to attract staff. I'd call the business "poorly managed", and/or a "poor business model with little or no profit margins".

There is no labour shortage in Japan. Just a shortage of well-managed and/or good businesses offering employment. Nobody wants to work for peanuts.

Fanks. I did a little research as you do and you (and some others) are on to it.

It's also an underutilised workforce—many women and elderly are not working because they either don't want to or need to or both, and many young people refuse to work for peanuts and live off their parents while 'studying' or doing faf all.

It’s not as simple as some of you think to raise wages—costs have gone up, and Japanese consumers won’t pay higher prices for non-essential items they can live without. So it's a bit unfair to suggest that these businesses goin under are poorly managed. Some are but not all.

-15 ( +7 / -22 )

If people don't work as a result of low salaries , what do they live on?

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

If vending machines could handle the age verification a bit better, they could avoid interacting with one segment of troublesome customers.

I live near a few beer vending machines and not once did I need an age verification ID card to use the machine.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Actually "severe labor shortage" is the corect wording. However the severity is NOT because of shortage of people, but because of ridiculously low pay.

And especially nowadays, when the REAL salary is getting lower and lower every year due to inflation and collapsing Yen.

So yes, pay more your employees, and see how the labor shortage is gradually improving.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

If salary value is getting lower and lower the tendency should be to find more work or better paying work not stop working and stop receiving salary

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

David BrentToday  10:54 am JST

There isn't a worker shortage in Japan. Why does JT persist with this nonsense?

They're not; it's Kyodo.

'Shortage of willing workers' - satisfied?

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

"I live near a few beer vending machines and not once did I need an age verification ID card to use the machine."

Chico3, what time of day did you purchase your beer? The age verification ID card becomes necessary after 23:00...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

David BrentToday  10:54 am JST

There isn't a worker shortage in Japan. Why does JT persist with this nonsense?

Paving the way for out of control mass immigration.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Futaro Gamagori: "I've seen enough people who ate their own words and become the person they used to hate"

Exactly! They become the person they used to hate, and hate themselves.

oyattosa!!!: "Paving the way for out of control mass immigration."

Someone's a little insecure, I see. Japan needs immigration, and fast. It's already too late, in fact, and they are LOSING potential immigrants and even their own nationals who see the dying nation for what it is. Doesn't mean it would be "out of control" to let a few people in. I mean, what does Japan let in? 70 people in 10 years? 1 refugee in 20 years? They even had to make a new class of "refugee" when accepting a handful of people from war-torn Ukraine (after touting how much they have helped the nation) because they were too scared of allowing more to give them full refugee status.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Convenience stores nationwide are struggling with a persistent worker shortage and rising wages, leading to more stores being operated by just one or two people during certain hours.

.

Convenience stores in Japan pay staff about a thousand yen an hour to work in the night.

To have just one staff member shows that the operator just wants more profit…

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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