Convenience store aficionados of the world, relax. Your perfect egg sandwich is safe, for now.
The primary concern for millions of Japanese around the ¥6.77 trillion ($45.8 billion) bid for Seven & I Holdings was that Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard would, in search of improving shareholder value, destroy the customer experience that has made the Japanese convenience store, or conbini, a global sensation. That threat seems to have faded after Couche-Tard on Thursday abandoned its bid, citing a lack of "sincere or constructive engagement.”
The Canadian firm’s ill-tempered and unusually in-depth letter should be read in full. It drips with the same sense of entitlement that colored Couche-Tard’s bid for the worldwide 7-Eleven franchise from the start — as if it expected buying the Japanese rival to be as simple as grabbing something from a store shelf.
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