#familymart#Tokyo2020#FruitsMixSandwich
The FamilyMart Company, Ltd. (株式会社ファミリーマート, Kabushikigaisha Famirīmāto) is a Japanese convenience store franchise chain. FamilyMart is Japan’s second largest convenience store chain, behind 7-Eleven. There are now 24,574 stores worldwide in Japan, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.[4] Its headquarters is on the 17th floor of the Sunshine 60 building in Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo.[5] There are some stores in Japan with the name Circle K Sunkus under the operation of FamilyMart.
FamilyMart was, until 2020, a subsidiary of the FamilyMart UNY Holdings Co., Ltd. (UFHD), which also owned supermarket chain Uny. UFHD was dissolved when Uny was acquired by the parent company of Don Quijote in 2020. FamilyMart Co.’s parent company is Itochu, a Japanese trading company, with a stake of 50.1%.[3] On July 8, 2020, Itochu announced it will spend approximately ¥580 billion (approx $5.5 billion) to purchase 100% of FamilyMart, with the intent to sell 4.9% of the shares to Zen-Noh and Norinchukin Bank.[6] FamilyMart shareholders approved the takeover on October 26, with the stock scheduled to be delisted on November 12.[7]
All of the usual Japanese convenience store goods such as basic grocery items, magazines, manga, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks like sake, nikuman, fried chicken, onigiri, and bento are available. FamilyMart is known for its distinctive doorbell melody, which is played upon entering the store.[8] The doorbells are exclusively made by Panasonic, and the melody these doorbells play is referred to as Melody Chime No.1 – Daiseikyou, and was originally developed for Panasonic by Yasuhi Inada in 1978.[9]
In South Korea the original stores are now called CU and operated separately by BGF Retail. It used to be the largest chain store in South Korea.