I glanced at the mirror placed next to the register for fraud prevention, a mirror I use at my part-time job. Reflected in it was a dishevelled man with dark circles under his eyes, sporting a scruffy beard and a strange grin, fidgeting around.
Well, this is pretty much the reality of me.
On top of my pale, clearly exhausted complexion, the fact that I’d shaved carelessly yesterday resulted in a scruffy beard rather than a stylish one.
My dark circles are particularly bad, and wrinkles are becoming noticeable at the corners of my eyes… and I’ve even started to gain a bit of a belly…
Because I had nothing to do, I sat on a chair, fiddled with my smartphone, and ate leftover chicken and potato chips that hadn’t sold, washing it all down with cola.
Rather than throwing them away, I diligently consumed leftover bento boxes and slightly damaged goods.
Then, I slept like the dead during the day, only to be woken up whenever something came up…
Yeah… it’s no wonder I’m getting fat and my health is in absolute ruins.
…My hair is also starting to feel a bit thin, lacking its former volume and shine.
When I’m sleep-deprived, I sometimes feel a tightness in my chest.
When I check my pulse, it sometimes skips a beat, what they call arrhythmia.
Honestly, I don’t want to suddenly drop dead, but I just don’t have the time to go to the hospital…
In the past, I was quite popular with girls, but when I think about it, it’s been years… Well, that’s only natural…
At this rate, my family line will end with me… I’m sorry, so sorry, ancestors!
“……Still, it’s unusually slow today……”
Thursday, a weekday, a late hour of the night… well, this is about as expected.
It’s been a full hour since the last customer, so it’s understandably slow.
Even with the extremely spacious parking lot, capable of holding about twenty cars, there isn’t a single one today… In the past, we went out of our way to secure surrounding land for long-haul truck drivers to rest, making it incredibly large, and it was quite popular at first.
…Recently, however, because we’ve significantly deviated from the standard long-haul truck routes, the parking lot has become just an expanse of empty space.
We invested a fair amount, and there were times when the cars couldn’t find parking despite this size…
Lately, the parking space markings have faded considerably, and the weeds are slowly encroaching on the boundaries, to the point where some of the lights in the corner have even been turned off.
Hmm, I completely misjudged the situation.
Damn it.
“KemoComi” has ended… and with that, most of the late-night anime I was casually watching have also finished, and some incomprehensible infomercials are starting to air.
Infomercials used to be interesting back in the day, but recently they aren’t cheap and aren’t entertaining. Amazonia and Tenchi Mu are sufficient for online shopping anyway…
Speaking of old infomercials… There was a show where a pair of Americans would pitch strange products with exaggerated over-the-top exchanges.
What was it called? It had a name like Telecon World.
They’d fry Hamburg Steaks on a car bonnet, or restore a car that looked like scrap to perfect condition with just a magic oil, or show a magic knife that could slice through an iron hammer.
In reality, they weren’t that amazing, but their unnecessarily exaggerated reactions and banter were incredibly funny.
Of course, they don’t do anything like that anymore.
While lost in these random thoughts, I checked the clock.
…The time had passed an hour after midnight.
In the late afternoon or early morning, local residents would stop by for small purchases, and cars coming from the main road would also drop in.
However, from around 10 PM to just past 5 AM, the only people who tend to visit are a small number of NEETs and late-night students… In essence, it’s an extremely slow period.
Nights in the countryside come early… It’s normal to turn off the lights and go to bed by 9 PM.
As for the cars from the main road, by midnight, hardly any pass by… In fact, there’s no reason for them to come all the way out to the mountains, so it’s only natural.
Moreover, roadside stations and tourist facilities close at 5 PM.
Therefore, tourists go home or retreat to their accommodations for the night once the sun sets.
Anyone who bothers to come at this hour would likely be someone who missed dinner at a budget inn, is here for work, or needs to get Alcohol or cigarettes late at night.
While I can’t know everyone’s individual circumstances, it’s generally around that.
Occasionally, taxi drivers stop by for a restroom break or to buy a late-night snack, or patrol police officers might drop in, but those instances aren’t very frequent.
Then there are the local night owls… that’s probably the main customer base…
From when the date changes until morning, I’d estimate the total number of customers to be around 20 to 30 people for the entire shift… After all, there are long periods where no one comes in.
Some days, it’s a single-digit number… This is what you could call “open for business, but not really.”
A decade or so ago, regardless of the time of night, truck drivers and people working night shifts would come and go, and it was quite lively.
Recently, perhaps due to the changing times, night work itself seems to be decreasing.
The primary reason I’m working late shifts like this every day is that even when I try to find new hires for the night shifts, no one applies.
In the past, night work was considered easy and well-paid, so it was easy to find people, with positions filling up quickly when advertised.
Now, the pay is good, but you end up having to handle the work of two people alone, and it’s simply too demanding everywhere.
After the reality of the “one-man operation black system” at a certain beef bowl chain became famous on TV and online, night work itself has become something freelancers avoid, which has been a blow.
It might still be the case in the city centers, but in regional cities like this, beef bowl chains and family restaurants are increasingly unable to maintain 24-hour operation, and even around the station, they close by 10 PM, making the night towns quieter year by year.
Even at family restaurants, finding staff after 9 PM has become difficult, and it’s not uncommon for one person to be managing the entire floor during those hours.
The quietening of the night town… This is something that becomes remarkably apparent when you’re working a job like this.
However, in the 1980s, this was actually the norm…
Supermarkets also used to close early, around 7 PM… When I tell younger people this, they always say they can’t believe it, but that’s how it was.
It’s hard to imagine now, but gas stations, except for those attached to highway service areas, used to close at night, take Sundays and holidays off, or have a three-day break for New Year’s, and that was standard!
That’s why, at the end of the year, you’d see lines at gas stations… it was a winter tradition.
Businesses that stayed open late… were the so-called “night businesses”… like the entertainment industry and bars. Even convenience stores opening until 11 PM were considered groundbreaking businesses…
This isn’t even half a century ago… This is a story from around 1985, the Showa era… just about 30 years ago.
In essence, we’re just returning to the situation of that time.
In other words, perhaps the past 30 years were the anomaly.
Humans are meant to be active during the day and sleep at night – that’s the natural cycle.
The behavior patterns of Japanese people are simply returning to that original rhythm… That’s all there is to it.
There’s no point in being open late at night anymore… I personally believe so.
However, Headquarters maintains a policy of strictly enforcing 24-hour operation for all stores, so I can’t just close it down according to my own convenience.
That being said, this convenience store is nearing its operational limit.
Regarding the profit and loss, we are barely in the black on holidays, but weekdays are either breaking even or at a loss. When you factor in food waste and utility costs during the late-night hours, it’s essentially been in the red for years.
When I was a bank employee, I would absolutely refuse loan applications from sole proprietors in this kind of financial state.
Instead, I would recommend they switch to a different industry.
Since I started this business debt-free, I’ve been able to manage by drawing down my savings from my salaryman days despite operating at a loss… but I don’t know how much longer I can sustain it.
After all, it feels like my savings are dwindling the longer I continue.
If I had taken on debt, I would have been in a perpetual cycle of refinancing by now.
I’ve tried various self-initiated management efforts, like setting up a stall at local festivals, starting a delivery service in partnership with a shipping company, and enlisting the cooperation of local farmers to sell fresh produce…
…Frankly, it’s like pouring water on parched earth.
Nearby rival stores have also withdrawn one after another, but that hasn’t made managing easier.
After all, even long-established individual shops and supermarkets along this road are closing down one after another.
The reason for the decline in customers, which is depopulation and location issues, means… that management efforts are no longer effective.
Closure is inevitable, and there’s nothing that can be done.
That is the unshakeable reality of my convenience store.
