FamilyMart

The FamilyMart Company, Ltd. (株式会社ファミリーマート, Kabushikigaisha Famirīmāto) is a Japanese convenience store franchise chain. It is Japan's second largest convenience store chain, behind Seven-Eleven Japan. There are now 24,574 stores worldwide in Japan, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Its headquarters is on the 17th floor of the Sunshine 60 building in Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo. There were some stores in Japan with the name Circle K Sunkus under the operation of FamilyMart.

FamilyMart was, until 2020, a subsidiary of the FamilyMart UNY Holdings Co., Ltd. (UFHD), which also owned supermarket chain Uny. UFHD was dissolved when Uny was acquired by the parent company of Don Quijote in 2020. FamilyMart Co.'s parent company is Itochu, a Japanese trading company, with a stake of 50.1%. On July 8, 2020, Itochu announced it will spend approximately ¥580 billion (approx $5.5 billion) to purchase 100% of FamilyMart, with the intent to sell 4.9% of the shares to Zen-Noh and Norinchukin Bank. FamilyMart shareholders approved the takeover on October 26, and the stock was delisted on November 12, thus leading the completion of the acquisition.

FamilyMart stores sell all the usual Japanese convenience store goods, such as basic grocery items, magazines, manga, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks like sake, nikuman (steamed pork buns), fried chicken, onigiri/omusubi (rice balls), and bento. FamilyMart is known for its distinctive doorbell melody, which plays upon entering the store. The doorbells are exclusively made by Panasonic. The melody is referred to as Melody Chime No.1 – Daiseikyou, and was originally developed for Panasonic by Yasuhi Inada in 1978.