I’ve been thinking of which kombini is the best to go to. I have seen such questions on reddit but from quite long ago. For me it has to be 7Eleven 100 percent. I absolutely love that place from the staff to the products available. I think the staff attitude is important as I’m also someone who likes to have casual small talk and conversation. In most 7Elevens I’m almost always greeted by smiling faces and out of the employees of the other kombinis 711 employees will almost always look me in the eyes and sometimes strike up conversations. Especially those from South and South East Asia since I’m of that origin and they obviously see an ally in me . But regardless of what I am, they are so friendly. Also their ATM’s take international cards.
Coming in at number 2 for me is Lawson. Also I love the vibes it gives. Staff is decently friendly. I love the kinda retro vibe it gives and the blue and white colors. I love their onegiris and I’d say they have pretty much the same items as 711.
And then last unfortunately comes Family Mart. Look, it may vary by location and by the staff they hire at specific braches, but I find Family Mart, while their marketing is quite good and I love the colors of their branding and their coffee , that they are the kombini which I least enjoy going to. I have met very nice and friendly individuals who work for Family Mart, but compared to Lawson and 711, they are probably the most sullen and unfriendly in general I’ve experienced. I just feel awkward when I go there. Also additionally in a few of their branches the ATMs do not take my international card, while in 7/11 and Lawson, their ATMS always take my card.
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So what are your favorite and least favorite kombinis and why?
40 comments
7 has the best food out of all of them and it’s not even close. Those Ito Yokado connections are far too powerful.
Best food: 7-11
Best sweets/drinks: Lawson
Best chicken: Family Mart
I only count the original items. The rest are mostly the same anyway.
Best overall 7 eleven, usually cleaner, better SOP, good food options, better onigiri, special sandwiches, Pierre Hermé deserts, 7 eleven branded stuff is good, coffee decent, fresh smoothies, and those ATM’s keypads click so satisfyingly.
Famima, OK food, famichiki is king, basic deserts quite nice especially those pudding.
Lawson, usually more dirty (except those natural Lawson), not so great staff, but it has the best minchikatsu any kombini can provide.
Seicomart > all of them
Family mart needs to up their onigiri and bento game
daily yamazaki for their 120 yen bread sale
Sankusu
It’s really hard to choose between famichiki, nanachiki (and bou chiki of course), and whatever the Lawson ones are called, but I think I prefer the pari-chicken from Lawson all in all.
Plus my local Lawson has a self-service heat rack thing (so you can get the chicken yourself without having to ask). Whenever I would ask for chicken at other conbinis, I was always paranoid there would be some Japanese person behind me “wow fat ass foreigner dude, conbini chicken? *what a surprise–*”. Of course nobody gives a shit but humans think stupid things.
Lawson. For me overall. But family chicken and duck ummm.
711, but Famima if I’m drunk.
7/11: Almond milk pudding (yummy), spinach with sesame and tofu hijiki salad 🥗 Sliced fruits are nice and healthy if I’m running late and can’t make it to the supermarket on time
Lawson: Grilled salmon onigiri 🍙 Popcorn 🍿 Salty boiled eggs after gym
Natural Lawson has coconut water
Only FamilyMart has the Hokkaido melonpan that I adore, and for that I’m ride or die with them.
That said, I find 7/11 and Lawson much more likely to be the ones you find out on the middle of nowhere. So they do get points for reliability, if nothing else.
I prefer Lawson as Karaage-kun is the king. I actually prefer their ‘in the hotbox’ products (L-chiki, minchikatsu, etc., to Fami or 7/11. As the other redditor mentioned, the move to self-serve is awesome. Also, my local just teamed up with fucking MUJI and now they have a small section of MUJI food (baumkuchen, retort curry, soups) and household necessities. ROCK!
7/11 has the best nuke-it-at-home food, though… without a doubt.
Mini-stop is the worst. Though I had a back-n-forth on reddit some time ago with a guy who claimed Mini-stop was the best for fried/junk food. We agreed to disagree.
The one that is the closest, and most convenient to get to.
Does Lawson 100 counts ?
Whichever is most konbinient from where I am at the time.
As a cyclist often out in the wild, it is whichever I come upon.
In daily life, I haven’t seen NewDays, JR’s station konbini, mentioned. They have some pretty good sandwiches, especially the baguette ones.
Other than that, I go based on the fried chicken available. Famichiki is the best of them and their new-ish Crisp chicken is great too (habanero is very good.
Lawson’s L-chiki is good, and they often do special flavors. A few years back they did a yuzu one which was one of the best ever.
7-11’s equivalent chicken is crap: watery and bland. But their chicken on a stick is good.
I also happen to live 1 minute from a Family Mart with staff that know me well, so I’ll go with Famima as the best overall
Family Mart, I just found some blueberry jelly & butter sandwich in there and my goodness that’s the best thing ever!!! It’s probably everywhere, but I saw it in Family Mart first
Natural Lawson is the best, obvi
number 2 is 7-11, they have really good big salads
Natural Lawson.
Lawson for fried chicken, 7eleven for snacks (chocolate filled corn pouches) and Family Mart for ice latte/frape
In general I think 7 is best. The jingle when you enter family mart always reminds me of my first time travelling here and gives me good vibes.
Individual locations > chain loyalty. That one Famima near me always has oranges. The other Famima down the street doesn’t have much of anything. The 7-11s are always well-stocked (minus hand soap), but no fruit (though one of them sometimes has Cheezas).
I love the snacks at Natural Lawson and the onigiri at regular Lawson as well. I pretty much only buy onigiri at the conbini so in my opinion, Lawson has the best flavors. I love the crunchy umeboshi onigiri and the edamame konbu one as well. Also I used to buy coffee from there and they give you a 10 yen discount for using your own cup and sometimes the receipt has coupons for your next coffee. 7-11 refused to let me use my own cup in pre-covid times, they gave me a paper cup and said something about inventory count which I thought was b.s.
7/11 has the best bentos.
I can only ever find yakisoba bread at family mart though and it’s my life blood.
So far the best reliable (not seasonal) chiki is *hands down* Daily Yamazaki’s shiso cheese. I also like the self-service aspect.
That alone wins it for me. But otherwise I think I’d vote Lawson. Best “basic” chikis
7-11 coffee (from the machine) is good. They blazed the trail with machine/self-service coffee and the others had to play catch up. But to be fair, the others are fine for coffee now. On the burrito front, 7-11’s ham and cheese burrito is about the best convenience store burrito you can buy IMHO.
I like 7-Eleven for food and Family Mart for socks, laundry detergent and spam onigiri.
Family Mart because they have a much better ice cream selection and they’re the only konbini in my area that sells the 2L Suntory Oolong Tea.
Family Mart – frappes are great in summer, soufflé pudding is amazing, spicy chicken is juicy
Mini Stop – like the crunky chicken
7-11 – frozen spaghetti is great as a quick snack, good ice cream selection, their gold label sliced bread is nice for sandwiches
Everyone bringing up Famichiki but sleeping on what actually makes them king: the peelable cheese sticks. The Family Mart brand ones are much softer than anything else I’ve found in Japan and is my main cheap cheese fix in a country where it’s largely inaccessible or expensive.
Lawson for beer selection though for sure.
7-11 for food, famima for seachikin maki, lawson for karaagekun or oden, ministop for their parfaits.
I cannot eat any of the bento from ministop because it has this slight dogfood whiff to it.
Seven, family, lawson.
Based on their products.
However seven is noticeably more expensive.
Coffee black wise lawson is definitely the worst for some reason. Seven and family cant tell much difference
I am soured on 7 because the one near me is mental, the owners are weird and shout at you and refuse to wear masks. I got screamed 「面倒くせー」 at for asking to pay a bill.
Lawson has a better range of food that isn’t complete junk. The one near me has their free-from range and fresh fruit to eat etc.
I’m a Ministop and Famima man myself.
Seicomart. More local stuff, usually larger than your typical conbini (which is nice given the increased geographical) sparsity).
Sadly won’t see them outside Hokkaido :(.
Sheetz.
Or, for Japan…
Favorite: 7-11 because they sell Black Thunder.
Least favorite: 7-11 because today they only had mint-flavored Black Thunder.
7-11 > FamiMart >>>>>>>>literally anything else. Maybe mini stop for soft serve but that’s IT.
Yamazaki has the best bakery items
Family Mart has the beer I like, 7 helpfully writes the English name of things on the packaging, Daily Yamazaki often has pretty good local vegetables cheap (but this depends on the area I think)