Having just attended his first English class, little Wang I-fan came home and told his mother: "Teacher wants us to use English names!" When his mother asked if he had thought of a name yet, the little boy scratched his head and pulled from his memory the one bit of English that he understood, and shouted, "Seven-Eleven!"

Convenient good neighbors: This is no joke but a true conversation from city life. With two or three convenience stores springing up on a street, the shops have already become characteristic of the city scene.

A look at the numbers involved helps us to understand more easily that the so-called "good neighbors" really have become all of our neighbors and have step-by-step made inroads into our life.

With a string of chain-store names already familiar to everyone's ear, by the end of February there were some 1,800 of them in the whole of Taiwan. When individual convenience stores are added to this, there are now altogether around 2,230 stores. Of these, the great majority is concentrated in the cities, and especially in the Taipei area.

Looking at the number of people who use the stores, according to a market survey carried out by the leading 7-Eleven chain--which has 668 stores in the province--7-Eleven has about 28 million customers each month. This is more than the entire population of Taiwan, yet still accounts for no more than one-third of the total number of people using convenience stores.

No more a rare "convenience": Nevertheless, concerning the way the shops are run, every one displays roughly the same range of goods. With the same glossy sales area, accommodating staff, always being open, the "convenience" they offer is already no longer a rarity. In the face of natural competition, the last half of last year saw convenience stores breaking new ground by developing their own specialty goods. A number of other differences arose and customer loyalty was especially strengthened by the large-scale provision of services.

Nowadays, apart from everyday goods, if you want printing there is no need to go to the printer; if you want a magazine or newspaper, you do not have to go to the corner newsstand; for postage stamps or small change, no need to go to the post office or bank. As well as all this, you can display advertisements, send clothes for laundering, buy cinema tickets or take out a subscription for a magazine. You can even find a dog, buy fresh flowers or look at an airline timetable. All of these requirements can be satisfied at the convenience store--and at any time of day. Now they have also begun giving receipts with prize-winning numbers on them. The Hi-Life chain was one of the first among them to issue receipts that can be exchanged directly for goods.

"For busy people of today, the medium-range prizes of$200 to$1,000 lack interest. They think that it is too tiring to make a special trip to the bank to cash them; but if they throw them away they feel they are wasting what heaven has given them," Chao Kun-jen, Hi-Life's head of planning elucidates on the strengths of service goods. Now every time new numbers are issued, for three or four days income over every counter is increased by some$70-80,000.

Cold comfort: Convenience stores are making ever greater inroads into our lives, but have they really become our "good neighbors"?

As you step into a bright and tidy convenience store, the busy uniformed assistants--usually students earning a bit of spare cash--do not forget to greet you with "welcome, do take a look." You can freely walk about, or just stand in the middle of the shop and thumb through a magazine. Of course, before you leave, they will not forget to give you a "thank you for looking."

"From head to tail, the convenience stores keep up a kind of 'cold courtesy.' They perform a service, but it is not really enthusiastic," says Chen Hsiao-hung, professor of sociology at Chengchi University. She feels that in the course of this uninterrupted exchange, there is not the slightest bit of human contact. Basically this is the character of urban culture.

When you look at the position of convenience stores, it is easy to understand this frigidity. Concentrated in big cities, mixed in with the main shops and on busy sidewalks, their main customers--students, teenagers, office workers--are a tide of people who drift in without being part of any community. Basically without relationships between them and looking for quick service, it is naturally very difficult for any kind of warmth to be forthcoming.

"Every day people come and go and speed is of the essence. Who has got time to speak to the customers?!" says Pang Chih-wen, manager of the 7-El even near Chengchi University. He also feels that the students just pay up and go. Sometimes, however, a housewife will come in and strike up a conversation at the counter, asking if the assistants are tired or whether it is hard working evenings. Obviously the atmosphere in the convenience store is one of you start the ball rolling.

Misanthropic malaise: "Sometimes we feel that the relationship with the traditional grocery store is much more human. However, for modern-day people, especially city dwellers, this can become a burden at times," points out Chen Hsiao-hung. If the convenience-store staff were like the local grocer's wife, knowing you, your mother and your grandmother, and always asking how things are at home as she tells you how the couple next door have been quarreling, you might feel the urge to hint, in a rather unsubtle fashion, to the effect of, "spare me this!"

The first time communications worker Chen Shang-ling stepped into the grocery store near her home, as soon as the woman there saw a new face she not only enthusiastically asked where she lived and what she did, but even gave her a colorful nickname. On Sundays, if she was carrying her daughter and bought a lot of things, then the shopkeeper's son would deliver the goods to her home. Such concern impressed Chen Shang-ling deeply and she became a loyal customer. Nevertheless, when in a hurry, short of patience, or tired from working, Chen Shang-ling might still choose the convenience store, "Because with no energy to spare for chatting about home, I can buy things there and leave having uttered no more than a couple of words."

The crux of the matter is now that "you do not have to come into contact with people." Chen Hsiao-hung points out that vending machines are the extreme point of this development. Look at the vending-machine culture adopted by young people in Japan who have rejected the traditional Japanese ritualistic relationship between people.

7-Eleven's public relations specialist, Elaine Ko, also talks of this modern-day phobia of personal interaction. They once tried to establish relationships with their customers in a shop only to find that once this had been achieved the customers were going elsewhere to buy things. Eventually one of the fleeing patrons told the manager, "If I know you and then come here only to look at the magazines but not to buy things, I will feel I have wronged you."

More warmth--less cosseting: "Sometimes modern people are full of contradictions, on the one hand not wanting to be interfered with and joining the rat-race, while on the other seeking homey warmth," says Chen Kuang-chung, associate professor of sociology at Taiwan University.

Facing this kind of modern attitude of "wanting warmth, but not wanting to get burnt," the convenience stores certainly do not want to go down the road of the traditional grocery store--striving to develop individual relationships. They want to put their energies into cultivating a kind of clan feeling. Recently some convenience stores have thus begun activities that will benefit their customers, such as 7-Eleven's "Get Back Your Loved One" campaign, or performing cultural groups for students and office workers. Then there is the Taiwan Niko Mart group's fund to help children with cancer.

In addition to this, more and more convenience stores are being established in residential areas and are starting all kinds of excellent good-will community activities. Yet this is still directed at the public affairs of the community rather than at individuals. At present, a number of stores are also undertaking community services such as sweeping the streets around their premises.

Neighborly New Year greetings: The Hi-Life chain was only established in 1979, and half of its present shops are in residential areas. Marketing department manager, Yau Hon-yee, tells of how for the last two years his shops have held drawing competitions for infants. The entries are judged by the shop managers and workers and on a good day the prizes are awarded inside the store and the works hung outside. Usually the managers will enthusiastically arrange things and, with the children all being from the same school area, the atmosphere is relaxed and intimate.

As well as this, there is a "good-will visit" every three months. Before the Chinese New Year the shop workers will take red envelopes filled with coupons to local homes so as to deliver New Year's greetings. They will also invite solitary figures away from home to come to their shop for a cup of coffee. "They must all wear uniforms, and finish their conversation within one and half a minutes, clearly explaining where they are from. Otherwise people can be very defensive," explains Chao Kun-jen.

Putting down roots in the community: So as to warm the community and strengthen trust in its stores, Hi-Life gives first priority to local residents to become its front-line student-workers and managers. Moreover, so as to support his affiliated shops, B&D's general manager, Chen Sung-chiang, also feels that couples "on the spot" not only run their shops more enthusiastically and have more breadth and depth, but also do so very much more in accordance with the shape of the local community.

In fact, not being too exacting about whether or not the convenience stores are of a commercial coloring, many workers who return home at night say that having the stores open for 24 hours has already been useful in making their neighborhoods more secure. Hospital worker Chang Chien-lun, who usually goes home late at night, feels much safer having a brightly-lit shop where people are always coming and going.

Chen Hsiao-hung thinks that it is really not fair to expect convenience stores to take on the burden of community work. Yet with their wide spread and concentration, if they can be useful to society, or work with the local people, then this is really developing their usefulness.

The 7-Eleven near Chengchi University, at the request of the school's teachers, collaborated in posting up the school's publication, Cha-Mei Pao-tao. Taiwan Niko Mart also cooperated with Taiwan University in putting up, free of charge, notices of student activities. The present job undertaken by convenience stores of collecting PET bottles is yet another example.

Take a look at Taiwan's highest concentration of convenience stores in the world, and you can see that we really are quietly developing towards a particular kind of "convenience culture"!

[Picture Caption]

Brightly lit convenience stores have become a characteristic element of the city scene.

Computers look up information on the arts, transport, entertainments, and even buy film tickets--a great attraction to the young people who make up an important part of the convenience-store clientele.

Express mail, change, postage stamps. . . more and more "conveniences" -- service goods are an ever-growing part of life in the city.

Convenience stores in residential areas make space available for the traditional grocer's function of broadcasting information such as the placing of notices looking for baby-sitters, renting out accommodation and carrying news of lost dogs.

To strengthen their links with the community in residential areas, the convenience stores run children's drawing contests and give away gifts for the New Year.

With open-shelf displays you can roam around and make a purchase without even opening your mouth.

Being open 24 hours and when the banks are closed means that the stores are an important part of urban night life.

Carrying children and chatting about the family give the traditional grocery store that human feeling that makes it different from the convenience store.

Computers look up information on the arts, transport, entertainments, and even buy film tickets--a great attraction to the young people who make up an important part of the convenience-store clientele.

Convenience stores in residential areas make space available for the traditional grocer's function of broadcasting information such as the placing of notices looking for baby-sitters, renting out accommodation and carrying news of lost dogs.

To strengthen their links with the community in residential areas, the convenience stores run children's drawing contests and give away gifts for the New Year.

Express mail, change, postage stamps. . . more and more "conveniences" -- service goods are an ever-growing part of life in the city.

With open-shelf displays you can roam around and make a purchase without even opening your mouth.

Being open 24 hours and when the banks are closed means that the stores are an important part of urban night life.

Carrying children and chatting about the family give the traditional grocery store that human feeling that makes it different from the convenience store.