I’m Really Unnerved In Tokyo

Arakawa Ward, 71 Convenience Store.

"My lord, Sosuke Araki, is a man who aspires to become the head manager of the 71 convenience store in the Kanto area! It's the first day I joined the job, please give me your advice."

Araki Sousuke, wearing a peaked cap and a green long-sleeved uniform with a big "7" printed on his chest, is bowing at ninety degrees to two other men who are also wearing shop assistant uniforms.

After failing the interview for several days in a row, facing an empty wallet, he resolutely launched "Plan B".

Joined 71 Convenience Store and started his "Convenience Store Career".

Since high school, he has often worked part-time at the 71 Convenience Store, and has had about 5 years of part-time work experience so far.

A few days ago, I heard that he was about to graduate, and a senior who worked in a convenience store asked if he should be recommended for the position of "reserve store manager".

However, Sousuke Araki was focused on the "communication business" at the time, so he naturally looked down on the work of the convenience store and kept saying "consider it".

"Well... welcome... Araki-kun, it's really timely for the higher-ups to recommend you to come here. I don't know what to do with the shortage of manpower recently."

One of them, a middle-aged Mediterranean man with a short, fat body and a good talkative appearance, is the franchise manager of this convenience store, Taketo Misaka.

Facing Araki Sousuke's obvious self-introduction with too much force, he was a little bit dumbfounded, rubbing his hands in front of him.

However, according to his resume, Araki Sousuke in front of him, although he looks like a gangster, is actually not only a college graduate, but also has more than five years of experience as an hourly worker in a 71 convenience store. He can be said to be the best helper right now.

"Yes, yes, it's great that you can come. After Sano resigned, I have been working night shifts for three consecutive days..."

Another male clerk named Moto Oida immediately echoed resentfully.

Hearing what he said, the store manager immediately glared at him.

After the introduction, Araki Sousuke began to officially enter the working state.

As a "Gold Medal Hourly Worker" of a convenience store, Sousuke Araki is familiar with loading goods, arranging shelves, inventory inventory, cleaning, cash register and life services.

There are a lot of convenience stores like 71 in Japan. There is one every 500 meters, and most of them are open 24 hours. In addition to providing various food, daily necessities, and magazines, they also take care of ATM, photocopying, and payment of utility bills. , handling various cards, taking photos of certificates, sending and receiving couriers on behalf of others, and many other businesses.

Manager Misaka just checked the working status of Araki Sousuke briefly, and then left with satisfaction, leaving only Araki Sousuke and Oida Moto.

It was afternoon, the store was close to the industrial area, and there was an endless stream of customers coming to the convenience store. The two of them stayed busy until eight o'clock in the evening, and then went out for a lunch instead.

Taking advantage of the opportunity when he was free, Araki Sousuke's eyes began to scan the shelves and refrigerators.

The hourly salary of the convenience store is not high, and the reason why he can insist on working here is naturally because there are many "hidden benefits" in the convenience store job.

With the continuous deepening of industrialization, 71 convenience stores provide more and more varieties of fresh food, such as sushi, salad, fried food, oden, and various microwave-heated ready-to-eat noodles and rice.

Most of the fresh foods have a taste period of 1-3 days.

For expired food, according to the regulations of convenience stores, it must be disposed of by discarding.

But in actual operation, in line with the principle of not wasting food and avoiding the trouble of sorting garbage, most franchised shop owners will allow shop assistants to buy back "just expired" food at a very low price.

Sousuke Araki, who had just entered college, was so poor that he couldn't even afford food in the school cafeteria, so he got three meals a day by working part-time at a convenience store.

After scanning around and placing a few of his favorite foods that were about to expire on the bottom left corner of the shelf, Araki Sousuke returned to the cashier with satisfaction.

Most of the customers are right-handed, and they will give priority to the products on the upper right, so the products placed in the lower left corner are the most likely to "expire", which is the valuable experience he has summed up over the years.

Seeing that Araki Sousuke had finished patrolling the shelves and there were no customers in the store, Oida Moto asked him to go out and smoke a cigarette together.

"Araki-kun went to two consecutive time slots, is it really okay?"

After the two lit cigarettes with each other, Koida Moto asked worriedly.

"Of course it's no problem. At the store with the best business in Shibuya back then, I set a record and worked three shifts in a row."

Araki Sousuke took a puff of cigarette and showed a bright smile.

Unlike others, he tends to work more late night hours.

The work in the middle of the night is not too busy, and the hourly wages will be higher than other hours, and more importantly, those delicacies that have just passed the "appreciation period" can be recycled in the first place.

"Ah, if only everyone was as energetic as Araki-kun. Recently, many convenience stores have changed to 18-hour hours because they couldn't find anyone on duty late at night. This store is also the same, especially when it comes out of that After the incident..."

Koida Moto said with emotion.

Late night is often the time when convenience stores lack the most people among the five working hours.

"That matter?" Araki Sousuke immediately asked curiously.

"Eh? Araki-kun, didn't you hear about it before you came? I thought you came here on the premise of knowing..."

Xiaojing Tianyuan immediately lowered his voice, and leaned into Araki's ear with a gossipy face, and said, "In the past month, when the store often changed the morning shift, it was found that the money in the cash box was not right, and instead there were more leaves. , Broken copper coins and other strange things... They all said that they were ghosts from the nearby cemetery, who came to buy things... The day before yesterday I heard the store manager Misaka called to ask someone to come to exorcise the spirit."

"Oh, that's it." Araki Sousuke replied perfunctorily.

In his opinion, most of the shop assistants used this as a cover, and their hands and feet were not clean.

"Araki-kun, don't you believe me, not far behind this store is the recently popular 'shared cemetery'. It is said that the ashes of six people can be placed in one tomb..."

"Huh? Shared cemetery?"

The aging of Japan and the limitation of land area have caused the price of cemeteries to increase year by year, which has created such brain-twitching things as "shared cemeteries".

However, for the poor with limited economic ability, or the elderly who are single, this kind of cemetery is also an option.

"Sano, who resigned recently, is said to have forgotten to put chopsticks for the guest's oden. When chasing him out, he saw something terrible... After that, he was unlucky for more than ten days."

At this moment, more than a dozen boys wearing high school uniforms and the same hairstyle as Sousuke Araki walked into the store happily.

The two immediately put out the cigarettes in their hands and returned to the cash register.

After a while, Moto Oida put on his coat and prepared to leave when the time came.

"These are students from the industrial department of a nearby high school. Their hands and feet are occasionally dirty. As long as it's not too much, you can just turn a blind eye and close your eyes, and don't conflict with them."

Moto Oida said this and said goodbye to get off work.

Sousuke Araki: Stop, have you handed in your favorites and recommendations?