About Speed of Serve
Japanese beef bowl restaurants take almost a minute to order and serve. Japan's unique horseshoe-shaped counter makes this possible. Staffs inside the counter serve customers sitting at the outside counter, thereby eliminating the waste of staff's movements. However, the shape of this counter makes it difficult for two or more people to eat together, and it is accepted in Japan where there is a culture of isolation. However it was not accepted very well in other countries. As proof of this, According to ZENSHO Holdings, Sukiya's some stores in Asia and other parts of the country adopt a horseshoe counter, but most of its overseas stores adopt a walk-up counter.
(Photo Taken by Authors)
About the price
According to Figure 2, the price of gyudon itself is the lowest in China, but since there are differences in prices, it can be seen that Japanese beef bowl is the lowest price in terms of the average annual income of each country.
Table 1.
Beef bowl price and average annual income in Tokyo, China and Brazil
Note. Beef bowl price and average annual income in Tokyo, China and Brazil. Adapted from Sukiya Brazil Web site : https://www.sukiya.jp/about/ Retrieved December 17, 2018. Sukiya Chine Web site : http://www.zensho.com.cn/index.html Retrieved December 17, 2018. ZENSHO Web site : https://www.zensho.co.jp/jp/ir/finance/monthly/index.html Retrieved December 17, 2018. Ran-king. (n.d.). Sekai Kakkoku No Heikinn Nensyu Syunyu Kyuryo Ranking Nihon No Nensyu Ha Sekain Ni Kuraberuto Takai ? [Average annual income, income and salary ranking in each country in the world. Is Japan's annual income high compared to the world's?] Retrieved December 17, 2018 from Ran-king Web site : http://ran-king.jp/average-wage/
The reason why the price of beef bowl is so low in Japan is the large number of beef bowl restaurants in Japan. Figure 3 shows the number of Sukiya stores in Japan and the number of stores in Brazil and China both in the top two countries excluding Japan. It shows that the number of beef bowl restaurants in Japan is overwhelmingly large.
Since there are many beef bowl restaurants, it can purchase a large quantity of raw materials and the cost per meal is reduced. This is unique to Japan, where the beef bowl industry is flourishing.
Figure 2. Number of Sukiya stores in Japan, China and Brazil. Adapted from Sukiya Brazil Web site : https://www.sukiya.jp/about/ Retrieved December 17, 2018. Sukiya Chine Web site : http://www.zensho.com.cn/index.html Retrieved December 17, 2018. ZENSHO Web site : https://www.zensho.co.jp/jp/ir/finance/monthly/index.html Retrieved December 17, 2018.
