Major retailer Aeon Co will launch on a trial basis a small discount food store in Tokyo's Nerima Ward as early as late this month, the company said Wednesday.
Aeon intends to use the store to analyze the needs of consumers in order to study low-cost store management, it said.
Discount food stores are increasingly popular in Japan at a time when household income increases little while product prices keep rising.
Price competition is expected to intensify among retailers, given that industry leader Seven & i Holdings Co entered into the discount store business in late August.
Aeon operates large-scale general merchandise discount stores known as Aeon Supercenters in Japan's northeastern region of Tohoku. It also runs Megamart large-scale suburban discount stores that mainly sell clothes and household items.
Aeon will open the new urban test store, which will be far smaller than existing discount stores, in a vacant furnished outlet, company sources said.
The company intends to run the store with a small staff made up mostly of part-time workers.
The store will handle fresh and processed food. Unlike Aeon's Jusco supermarkets, it will also have on its shelves low-priced products of small- and medium-sized companies while waiting to sell Aeon's Topvalu brand items for the time being.
© JCN
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Mark_McCracken
What? Can anyone explain how this new "trail food discount store" will be different from the Jusco supermarkets? Also, what is "a vacant furnished outlet". This reads like something a machine translated.
MrMukatsuku
Oh goody, will they be selling rice?
romulus3
MrMukatsuku,
yes. and other mislabeled, relabeled expired products plus food taken from the dumpsters of 7/11s and the best veggies grown on Chinese nuclear testing ares.
MrMukatsuku
romulus3
Well it's good to see that someone has finally pulled their finger out and making a real effort at improving the quality of food on sale in our shops. Any news on the availability of burgers with the fish-hook dressing?
romulus3
MrMukatsuku,
those are to expensive for this outlet. check the price of steel on bloomberg. you are talking a luxury item here.