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by mstngl 201 days ago
Often, several stores belonging to the same chain are located in close proximity to each other so that goods can be distributed more cheaply and frequently. This strategy is known as dominant policy (ドミナント政策, dominanto seisaku).[1]

[1] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8A%E3...

4 comments

I can't help but giggle slightly at the effort put into presenting not just the term, but also both the japanese and japanese-romanized forms, considering that it's just an entirely literal translation of a basic business strategy. Reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvNxgHTWIlo.
When I was in Poland, I was shocked by the number of Żabka convenience stores. They didn't look quite like Japanese combinis (from what I've seen online), but were leagues ahead of the typical North American convenience stores. They were on every corner, sometimes you could look down the street and see multiple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBabka_(convenience_store)

Yes, however this approach is what killing Żabka franchisees in similar way as Subways in the US. If one store is profitable enough to stay alive, another one emerges in a very close proximity, resulting in both stores cannibalizing each other profits and the risk regarding losses is being put entirely on small franchisees rather than the big company.
That makes sense. Zooming into Warsaw (or most other cities) on the Żabka map, it's unbelievable how many there are:

https://www.zabka.pl/znajdz-sklep/

Seizon Senryaku!
That explains why there's a crossing where you can see 7 Family Marts in Shin-Imamiya...