7-11! Your Convenient Civil Defence Store

[homesweethome]

EARTHQUAKE!!! Terrorist Nuclear Attack!! Killer Typhoons?!

Government says take refuge in your local convience store.
Public facilities will be too overwhelmed and might not be able to microwave your burrito.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4293488.stm

Local authorities in Japan are signing agreements with convenience stores to turn them into help centres in the event of a major earthquake.

Just don't forget your bank or charge card.

[Taro Toporific]

Hey wait a damn minute! Are they talking about using the same Mickey Mouse convenience stores that run out of bread EVERY evening before 8pm?

Do the authorities think that Japan's convenience stores the run on the vile just-in-time, zero-inventory-in-stock and do not have their own warehouse will be able to provide any food after 12 hours?

Japanese convenience stores keep all their inventory on trucks endlessly circling, congesting and poluting the metro areas because they refuse to warehouse (or pay for) inventory until it's needed on the shelves.

Then there's the little problem that Japanese convenience stores never survive eathquakes because of their crappy building practices and lack of back-up generators for refrigeration. The Japanese press and TV always shows pictures of convenience stores after an earthquake because they are the places most dramatically trashed.

[homesweethome]

If I am not mistaken the Hanshin Earthquake was the last big earthquake in Japan that hit a major metro area. I think the government was severly criticised then for the slow response in getting relief to the effected areas. Now with the 7-11 your 'conbini' disaster relief center/ just-in-time delivery will bring those needed supplies just exactly where and when they are needed. No waste, no unnecessary use of vital government funds (your tax yen) for wasteful social programs.

And you thought Houston and New Orleans was bad and couldn't happen like that in Japan?

Capitalist Disaster Planning at it finest.

[homesweethome]

[[url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aHytQKriUV0c&refer=asia[url]Fuji is rumbling[/url]]

The government was alerted to the possibility Fuji, a national symbol, might erupt for the first time in nearly 300 years after detecting a rise in the incidence of moderate earthquakes in the area in 2000 and 2001, which seismologists believe indicate volcanic activity.