Future Studies of Food Service 187: Creating the Future Form of Suburban Bento Shops

The suburban bento shop model I am about to explain applies to stores ranging from a minimum of 10 tsubo (monthly sales in the 1 million yen range) to a maximum of 35 tsubo (monthly sales of 10 million yen).

Employees handle preparation, cooking, plating, and delivery.

★Rice cooking (labor-saving equipment)
This is handled by a rice robot. Since one unit costs several million yen, it is basically introduced via lease. A standard 5-sho rice cooker is also necessary for emergency rice cooking or seasoned rice preparation. (Even in restaurants, baby cockroaches have been known to enter the base, causing short circuits, malfunctions, or the inability to cook rice.)

★Auto-fryer (labor-saving equipment)
This is a dedicated frying machine about 1.5 meters long. It is convenient because ingredients sandwiched between mesh belts pass through an oil tank at a set temperature to fry evenly, but it requires ingenuity regarding the size and thickness of the ingredients to match the set temperature and speed.

★POS register & self-checkout machine (labor-saving and personnel-saving equipment)
Since a POS register can aggregate over a dozen types of data, it has essential functions for checking popularity and identifying products to remove from the lineup. If there is a staff member in charge of the register, customers can pay using the self-checkout machine. It is an essential labor-saving and personnel-saving device for preventing errors in cash handling, preventing fraud, and managing money.

★Steam convection oven (labor-saving equipment)
This is a high-performance cooking device that can perform set cooking by utilizing three functions: steaming with steam, heating with a microwave, and baking with an oven.
Since this also costs several million yen per unit, it is best to introduce it via lease. Although expensive, it has a service life of over 6 years. It costs about 800,000 yen per year, or about 67,000 yen per month. It is cheaper than a full-time employee or a part-timer. Furthermore, it does not complain and has no days off. Social insurance premiums are also unnecessary.

★-25 to -50 degree freezer, blast chiller, and rapid defroster
Even if you are not a high-end yakiniku specialty store, this equipment is now necessary for the bento industry. If you have the set of three—freezing high-cost ingredients, long-term frozen storage (possible for 1 year if kept at -25 degrees or lower), and defrosting—you can buy when prices are low and store them.

Work that only humans can do is performed by humans. Everything else is done by machines as much as possible.
Excessive labor costs lead to management that does not generate profit.

The kitchen should be laid out with priority on work efficiency.

Since 80% of the total store space will be the kitchen, we will devise a layout and structure that makes preparation and cooking work easy, and makes it easy to bring in and take out ingredients and packaging materials. Kitchen design is the area that requires the most time to plan.

Make it a dry kitchen.

The kitchen floor is made completely flat to install equipment. In principle, it becomes a kitchen floor where water is not poured, and since there are no drains or drainage basins, it is possible to prevent the intrusion of pests such as mice and cockroaches. All liquids on the floor are wiped up with a mop. By increasing cleanliness, the risk of food poisoning can be reduced.

Make the bento and side dish sales area a clean, bright, and comfortable space that is easy to move around in.

No matter how good the products a bento shop sells, in order to fight on the same line (battlefield) as convenience stores, it is necessary to have the same level of sales floor functionality and environment creation. I place my alter ego in the blueprints and walk around, checking while imagining things like 'this equipment is in the way,' 'this area is narrow,' or 'it would be more pleasant and comfortable if there were a window here.'

Install solar panels on the roof.

Solar power generation has now shifted from the purpose of selling electricity to the purpose of maintaining stable business operations. A bento shop cannot cook, store ingredients, or sell without electricity. Even if power transmission stops due to some trouble, you can feel at ease if you have private power generation equipment. When there is no budget, I think it is fine to cover at least the power consumption of the prefabricated refrigerator.

Use LED lighting for both pest control and energy saving.

Moths and insects react to and gather around light bulbs and fluorescent lights. Even if items are individually wrapped, it is not appropriate for insects to enter a shop that sells food. This can be prevented by changing all lighting inside and outside the store to LED.

Make bentos that can compete with convenience stores.

The main product price range for both individual suburban bento shops and convenience store bentos is almost the same, in the 500 to 600 yen range.

<Convenience Store Bento> <Suburban Bento Shop Bento>
★Mass factory production with long-distance transport ★Handmade and sold fresh
★Mass purchasing keeps cost of goods around 30% ★Individual store purchasing leads to cost of goods over 40%
★Chlorine sterilization used to prevent food poisoning ★Sold within 2 hours of production (no sterilization)
★Cannot promote health-consciousness ★No additives used in-store other than those in ingredients
(Heavy use of additives)
★Optional menus are impossible ★Rice portion can be ordered individually
(Rice amount, side dish amount, etc.) (Can be increased by purchasing small additional side dishes)

The strengths that independent bento shops have to beat major convenience store bentos are:
1. Handmade and additive-free (at the seasoning stage)
2. Freshly made (within 1 to 2 hours)
3. Warm rice (possible for over-the-counter sales)
4. Customizable rice volume
5. Sales prices matched to local market rates
6. Seasoning matched to local preferences
7. Required quantities can be reserved up to two days in advance
8. Can provide any size or content of food according to budget
(Bentos, hors d'oeuvres, side dishes, desserts, etc.)

Do not give up; find your chance and keep working hard. Opportunities are waiting for you everywhere.

(End)