5 days ago
News in Easy English: First convenience store opens on small island in Fukuoka
FUKUOKA -- A small island called Nokonoshima in Hakata Bay now has its first convenience store. This is the first time any of the 10 islands in Fukuoka Prefecture with people living on them has a store like this.
The new store is called NocoMart. Nokonoshima is about 12 kilometers around and has about 600 people living on it. Before, people had to take a ferry to the city or wait for delivery trucks to buy food and drinks. The last shop on the island closed in 2019.
NocoMart opened on July 18 near the ferry terminal. The store is part of the Yamazaki Shop chain. It is managed by Kotaro Honda and Yuichi Asaba, who both moved to the island from Fukuoka city. The store is small, but it sells about 700 different products. About 100 people come on weekdays and 200 on weekends.
A man in his 50s said, "It's really easy now to buy items that had been difficult to buy on a daily basis, such as food, and it's given me peace of mind." A woman in her 60s said, "When I want to eat something sweet, I can buy it right away." She added that it is helpful that there are so many kinds of products.
The store is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Asaba said, "I want to keep this going for as long as possible without running into the red. In the future, I would also like to consider offering delivery services."
(Japanese original by Kazuya Inoue, Kyushu News Department)
Vocabulary
convenience store: a small shop that sells food, drinks, and other daily items
ferry: a boat that carries people and things across water
selection: the choice of different things you can buy
peace of mind: feeling calm and not worried
run into the red: to lose money or not make a profit
