#general stores

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Photo of a conversation in front of a general store. Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration - 1938.

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“Farm boy who sells ‘Grit’, Irwinville Farms, Georgia.”  Photographed June 1938 by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration.

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Some Japanese Culture for Writing References (Part I: Shopping)

This is a long post of general things you can find or expect regarding shopping in Japan. You can find the rest of it under the cut.

Every fruit is peelable here. Not sure what I mean by that? Well, have you ever peeled grapes in your country? Many Japanese people peel the skin off of grapes before eating them. To be fair, their grapes are huge. I’ve also seen the small ones at grocery stores, but the big ones are more common (or at least more noticeable). 

That brings me to my next point related to fruits: they’re expensive here (one apple is 200 yen = $2), but they’re also good quality (and not to mention bigger than their US equivalent). I never see rotting fruit at the grocery store, no heavily bruised bananas, no bursting berries. They discount fruit that probably has a day or two left of life, but they keep that separate from the fresh stuff and often put it in its own individual package with a new price on the discount shelf so you notice it. If no one buys it by the end of the day, they’ll just throw it out. (This might apply to certain grocery stores though because a lot of the produce at Don Quixote for example is not always in such a good shape as the ones at my local grocery store. Donki is also known for its imported food, so that could be part of the reason.)

This is an addition to the previous point, but the reason why fruits here is so expensive is they’re treated as more of a luxurious dessert than a quick snack like we see in the US. They’re also very delicious (and I say this with no bias because I don’t really like fruits so I don’t buy them, but sometimes I receive them as gifts so I eat them because I don’t want to waste them).

In any general store Japan, the shelves are at a reasonable height for those who are not gifted in being able to reach things on the top shelf (compared to Walmart where everything is just stacked to the ceiling and you have to climb some shelves when no one is looking to get that one thing you need). Everything is arranged also with senior citizens in mind - ready-made meal packages or general ingredients that seniors often need are stocked in an easy to reach area for their convenience. A lot of seniors feel bad (or are stubborn) about asking for help with those kinds of things, so in order to help them preserve their dignity, they make sure their necessities are easily accessible.

In general stores that have shopping carts available, you’re supposed to take a basket and place it on your shopping cart and push it around and not directly place your items into the shopping cart itself. I don’t know if this is just a cleanliness factor (because I’ve seen some people put bigger, non-food items in the shopping cart itself and use the basket for food), but I think it’s just because the carts are much smaller and narrower along the sides than your average shopping cart. Things will fall out unless you have a basket and since Japanese people typically go shopping for a few things they need every day, it’s very likely their items will fall out unless they have that basket.

You know how the US has that fast food culture? I remember getting groceries and having plans for meals to prepare but then eating out and wasting everything because I was too tired/lazy to cook anything. Eating fast food or just eating out in general is somewhat of a luxury in Japan. Families have their own meal plans, typically mothers spend the day preparing everything for their kids and husband when they come home. For single salarymen (office workers) who don’t have someone to cook for them, grocery stores come in very handy because they always have bento boxes and different already made meals that you can just buy and eat when you get home. They’re for sale throughout the day too, so if you need breakfast or lunch, these will cover you pretty well and they’re fairly reasonable, filling, and healthy balanced meals (unlike fast food). 

Also, if you come in during the last hour or so just before closing time, you can find a lot of discounted food (like I mentioned above). Sometimes if they have a lot of a single type of food for sale (too much of the same kind of sushi that hardly anyone bought, for example), they might start discounting it early in the day just so they can give people an incentive to buy it so they don’t have to throw it out and waste it. If something is going to go bad the next day, it’s most definitely going to have a discount sticker on it some time late in the afternoon. The later it gets, the more they discount it, but be careful because you might lose out on something if you wait too long!  (They also don’t just do this with food, btw. They also put discount stickers on stuff that they have too much stock of at the time and they need to move it out to make room for new stuff. Pokemon goods is a good example.)

The cashier will greet you and then tell you how much everything costs in your basket as they ring it up for you. Sometimes they’ll ask you if you want to use a bag especially if they’re really environmentally friendly and they ask if you have ‘mybag’ (meaning, your own bag for groceries). If you say yes, and actually have a bag to use, then you can get 3 yen off on your final purchase for saving them the cost of the bag. It doesn’t seem like much but it’s a big deal for someone who buys groceries every day (which is a lot of the population of Japan - most of them buy only what they need for that day or for the next two days to keep from being wasteful).

Grocery stores also have microwaves for those who buy their lunch there. They also have free ice boxes at the self-bagging area where you can literally just take it up to the ice box (in the same area) and fill it up with ice to take home for free. And yeah, you bag your own groceries in Japan with the exception of maybe a slow day when no one’s around and you bought one or two things - the cashier will put those things in a bag for you if you don’t have ‘mybag.’

You’ll also find a lot of different food items that are followed by the word ‘my’ like in the example of ‘mybag’ as a kind of trendy word to make something feel more personal. I’ve seen ‘mybagel’ and ‘mypan (bread).’ (Something related but not quite part of shopping: I had a teacher ask me today if the camera I had was ‘mycamera.’ Like she literally said: ‘Is that mycamera?’ while pointing at me, so yeah, they use ‘my’ incorrectly grammar-wise but to show that they’re talking about something that belongs to the person the speaker is talking to.)

Stores will show you the price of the item and then the price of the item after tax below it so you can figure out your total for yourself and have the exact change ready at the checkout stand. Well, you don’t have to, but Japan is a cash country. You won’t be paying with credit card most of the time. If you can’t stand not having a card though, there are point cards that you can get for each store (some you can use at multiple stores). Just reload your card with cash at one of the machines, and then you can swipe it and even get rewarded with points that you might be able to use toward your next purchase or even just get something free if you accumulate enough points!

For a different kind of shopping, if you go shopping for clothes and they have a changing room, you’re supposed to take off your shoes before entering. Most of the time, they’ll also have this paper thing that you’re supposed to put around your head as you try on your clothes to keep the germs (from your face I assume?) off of the clothes as you’re trying them on. It’s not such a bad idea if people are sick, for example but it can be a pain if you’re not used to it.

I’ve encountered these in the US sometimes, but this is normal in Japan: there are always little bags for umbrellas as well as hand sanitizer at the entrance of Japanese stores (grocery and general stores, not always small stores). There’s usually a vending machine right near by too in case you get thirsty... inside the store.

The workers are always greeting you or welcoming you to the store if they see you, and it gets uncomfortable after a while. They do it because they have to, and if you’re in a small store and you don’t even buy anything, they’ll still thank you for coming as you try to run out hoping they don’t notice you. (I think it might be a way to guilt trip you actually. It gives me a the feeling that it has to do with the shy culture in Japan, and it probably originated from small food stands and stalls from long ago. If they want people to come take a look and maybe buy something, they’ve gotta be loud and welcoming or customers won’t feel inclined to come over. I know that works on me all the time when I’m going somewhere and someone calls out to me when I make a single glance over. But then again, I could just be very easy to manipulate.) 

The largest bill is 10,000 yen which is the equivalent of about $100 and unlike many stores and restaurants in the US, it’s totally acceptable to pay with a 10,000 yen bill. Some big stores have machines that will take the money and then calculate how much change you need and spits out the exact amount to make the cashier’s life easier. People tend to spend their 10,000 yen bill first at those stores so they can have change to spend at other places where cashiers have to actually count the change by hand. It’s not necessarily a bad thing if you spend 10,000 yen at stores where the change spitting machine doesn’t exist, but you can annoy someone if you make it really inconvenient for them as well as the customers waiting in line behind you.

There is usually a tray on the counter for you to place your cash when you pay. You don’t leave your unwanted receipts there (that’s rude), but Japanese people typically don’t want to touch strangers, so the tray is there to avoid that awkward accidental touch when taking your money. A lot of them are really smooth, however, when they give you your change, often using the receipt as the go-between so they can avoid contact with your hand, but in cases where there’s a lot of coin change, they’ll suck it up and hold your hand as they place the change in yours so it doesn’t fall out. Otherwise, if you drop it, they’ll have to overapologize and it’ll be awkward for everyone, so physical contact isn’t so bad in comparison.

Convenience stores literally have everything you need. You can find snacks, breakfast, lunch, general meals, other food, writing/letter materials, neckties (in case salarymen find themselves in a situation where they need one immediately for whatever reason), flowers, media (books, magazines, DVD, non-hidden adult magazines), drinks, and things you don’t think you need but are actually very convenient for Japanese people such as candles for graves (for Obon season for example). You can also purchase movie, concert, and event tickets at some of the convenience stores (Lawson and Family Mart for example). They have a machine where you can order them, print them, and pay at the counter. 

If you buy ready-made food at a convenience store, they’ll ask you if you would like them to heat it up for you. Then they will if you want to or they won’t and just take your payment. 

100 yen shops are the cheap convenient stores, meaning that they’re fairly common in every city, but you only pay 100 yen per item (with the exception of some special quality stuff that they mark as a different price in red but isn’t more expensive than probably 500 yen). The real convenience stores (what they call ‘conbini’ here) are also a little more expensive than if you were to buy the same kinds of items at a grocery store. In other words, you’re paying for the convenience of the item. Since conbinis are pretty much everywhere and a lot smaller than having to go through a whole supermarket to find the same item, it’s a lot more convenient. (How many times have I used that word?)

That last point ended up getting into conbinis again, so here’s another point about 100 yen stores. You can find all kinds of things that you never expected to find - kitchen supplies, gardening supplies, cleaning supplies, food, snacks, writing supplies, stationery (very nice looking stuff too), fans, Japanese-looking stuff (perfect for souvenir shopping), make-up, books (for even workbooks for different subjects for kids), stuff you never knew that you needed basically. It’s great. 

A completely random point but something that should be mentioned because this isn’t a thing I see anywhere else: the souvenir culture here is so important that you can find a whole area dedicated to food souvenirs in stores to bring back to your coworkers or friends if you’re visiting someplace. Sometimes they’ll even have specific stores for the sake of selling souvenirs (or what they call ‘omiyage’). You’ll see the most omiyage sold in train stations no matter how small they are. They’re often large packages of anywhere between 10 to 30 small packs of a certain snack usually for the sake of giving to co-workers. (For example, there are 34 teachers at my school, so I often buy 2 packages of 18 packs to cover everyone.) There’s usually a model near the actual product so you can see see what the actual snack (and the inside) looks like.

It’s an unspoken rule that pictures are not allowed to be taken inside of stores. I think it has something to do with not wanting their competitors to know how much they price certain stuff (because prices fluctuate based on stock and consumer interest). It’s totally okay to take pictures at the Pokemon Store though because their prices are all advertised on their website anyway. The Pokemon Company owns everything anyway so they don’t have to worry about competitors though there are stores that do sell certain things that are priced a little higher than what they go for at the Pokemon Center. That partly has to do with the convenience of being able to access those items because not every prefecture has its own Pokemon Center or Pokemon store.

If you end up in a store where the cashier bags your items for you (a non-grocery store), they’ll put a piece of tape on the top to keep your bag together so things will stay in place. This is especially helpful when you’re shopping at the book store or when you get a big bag of goods from the Pokemon Center, but they probably also do this as a way to prevent people from just throwing in extra items into their bag on the way out (i.e. stealing). 

[campbellmuseums-blog]

This week's ThrowbackThursday features the interior of Charles Willet's general merchandise store, one of the first general stores in Campbell around 1895. Willet's store was located on Campbell Avenue near Central Avenue and the railroad tracks. General stores were often the prime centers for business in the 1890s and were frequently utilized by Campbell residents. General stores sold a little bit of everything including goods like corn or onions, agricultural products, tools, medicine, and household items. Before the creation of post offices or mail delivery, general stores also served as the only way a resident could send or receive mail and packages. What would you sell in your general store?

Part of the Campbell Historical Museum collection: 1974.010242.

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Photo of a general store in rural Arkansas. Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration - 1938.

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50s era logotype for TG&Y stores.

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