(), a member of

AEON The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...

, operates the Ministop

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ti ...

franchise chain in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. Unlike most other convenience stores in Japan, Ministop stores feature a kitchen that prepares sandwiches, snacks and take out

bento A is the Japanese iteration of a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch. Outside Japan, it is common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean cuisines and more, ...

boxes on demand, and has a seating area where customers can sit down and eat immediately.

Products

The usual Japanese convenience store goods are available, such as

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

comic books,

soft drinks A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often Carbonated water, carbonated), a Sweetness, sweetener, and a natural and/or Artificial Flavoring, artificial flavoring. The sweetene ...

contraceptives Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth cont ...

onigiri , also known as , , or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in ''nori''. Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume (''umeboshi''), salted salmon, katsuob ...

; services include bill payment, photocopying, ticket purchase for events and ATM access. Ministop also has its own unique brand of

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredie ...

. The menu varies according to season and periodical promotions. A typical selection might include

hot dogs A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a f ...

sandwiches A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

, frozen desserts such as soft serve ice cream, kariman and ''chūkaman''— Siopao-style buns with various fillings.

International operations

Ministop also operates in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

South Korea

The first Ministop store in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

opened in November 1990 in

Mok-dong Mok-dong is a ward of Yangcheon-gu, located in the west of Seoul, South Korea. Commonly referred to as a "special education district", the upper-middle/upper-class neighborhood is best known for its abundance of private institutions, or Hagwons, ...

, as a joint-venture with Daesang Corporation; Ministop bought Daesang's stake in the venture in 2003. As of October 2017, there were 2418 operating Ministop stores. In January 2022, Lotte Corporation acquired the entire stake of Ministop Korea Co. for 313.37 billion won ($263 million).

Philippines

In December of 2000, the Japan-based convenience store chain Ministop made its way to the Philippines, being brought to the country by Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. in partnership with Ministop Japan and Mitsubishi Corporation. In January 2022, Robinsons Group assumed full ownership of the Ministop business in the Philippines with 460 branches. It was announced that the stores would be rebranded as Uncle John's, after the flagship fried chicken product sold in the Philippine market since 2006.

References

External links

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Ministop Philippines (Robinsons Convenience Stores, Inc.)
Aeon Group Companies based in Chiba Prefecture Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Convenience stores of Japan Convenience stores of the Philippines Japanese brands Retail companies of Japan Retail companies established in 1980 {{japan-company-stub