Lawson

My city is covered with convenience stores. No - "covered" is too mild a word; it's littered with convenience stores. And almost all of them are called Lawson. This is incredibly convenient, to have a Lawson at almost every corner. There's one place where I pass three Lawsons, each within a 10 to 15 second drive from each other. There are other convenience stores in Japan (7-11, Poplar (not Popular), and various independents) but in my area Lawson is by far the most evident.

I have become inured to some formerly surprising sounds that occur upon entering a Lawson. "Bing-Bong!" every time someone goes in or out. Many people go in and out, and the bing-bong is quite loud. I would surely go mad if I had to work there. Not a moment after the bing-bong erupts, all of the 3 or 4 workers in the place look up from what they're doing, and say (not necessarily in unison) いらっしゃいませ！ which means "Welcome!" But, usually they say a bit more than that. Usually, they say: "Welcome! Good morning/afternoon/evening! Welcome" or
いらっしゃいませ、こんばんは、いらっしゃいませ！ which is an earful, when a number of people say it in staggered fashion.

Lawsons are quite amazing in the diversity of their products: a million different types of pop, tea, milk drinks, etc.; a billion different types of snacks: chips (I tried what I think was a marmalade flavour last week!), chocolate, candy; and truly edible meals for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I would never buy something hot or cooked from a Western convenience store, but here, I have bought many a delicious bento lunch at Lawson (pronounced Ro-sun of course, ローサン). New products seem to get released every week: there's always a new fizzy drink, potato chip flavour, or chocolate dessert.

As you leave, all the staff thanks you for your purchase and invites you to come back and shop at their store again.

Oh, and of course "Bing-Bong!"