It is 3am in France, and I would kill for a midnight snack. My fridge and shelves are empty, supermarkets are closed. At night, almost every shop is closed except McDonald’s.
The only thing left to do is to try to fall asleep and wait until tomorrow when the shops open again.
Things are different in Taiwan. Convenience stores are everywhere. This is quite life changing. Do you want something to eat? No matter the time, you can find something. You have just cut yourself and need a bandage? You would find it there. Need to print your train tickets? I can basically access everything no matter what time it is.
Before coming to Taiwan, I already knew about convenience stores. In fact, convenience stores, particularly 7-Eleven, are famous back in France. Almost every teenager has stumbled on influencers traveling to Japan or South Korea and reviewing the convenience stores’ items at least once. Most of the time, you would see them trying out new drinks, rice triangles, instant noodles, ice cream and so on. Convenience stores are considered really advanced and cool in France.
Naturally, I was very excited when I entered the first 7-Eleven I saw in Kaohsiung. I could not believe I was finally experiencing what I had seen through social media. I even recorded bits of the store and sent it to my friends. What really struck me was the variety of drinks and their packaging. Back in France, packaging is not as sophisticated as it is here. The products here look so cute that it makes you want to buy them. This cuteness to appeal to customers is one of the biggest cultural differences I encountered so far. On top of that, every other product was appealing to me since it was relatively cheaper than in France.
I had just moved into a new room, so I bought a lot of essentials from a 7-Eleven. I could not help but think of how convenient that store was.
Now that I have been here for a few months, my opinion about convenience stores has evolved. Of course, I still find them really convenient, but I came down to earth and realized that they are in fact more expensive than regular supermarkets. However, that does not stop me from going there at least once a day. This made me realize that convenience stores make me want to consume much more. Indeed, they are open 24/7 and are rarely more than 10 minutes away by foot, even less with a motorbike. How tempting.
The other day, I came back quite late from my practice at the skatepark. I was really thirsty and my friends and I wanted to pass by the 7-Eleven near our house to buy some snacks. Even though I could have waited only five minutes more to get to our home and drink water for free, I decided to buy a water bottle at the store. This story might sound futile, but it made me realize how convenience stores enhance tendencies of consumerism. Now that everything can be acquired fast, I do not take the time to actually ask myself if what I want is really necessary or not.
Convenience stores are indeed very convenient for the day-to-day, but definitely push people to consume more. The products that they sell are not of very good quality either, but it is that way so that they can be accessible to everyone. Not having that kind of shop in France definitely pushes me to be more organized when I do grocery shopping. However, even after coming to that conclusion, I know I would not help but miss them once I am back in France.
Lucia Caneque Bueno is a French exchange student in the Department of International Affairs at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages.
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