FamilyMart (Satomi Maiden ~ Third Power)

FamilyMart (ファミリーマート Famirīmāto) TYO: 8028 is an international chain of convenience stores. FamilyMart, primarily operating as a franchise, is one of the world's largest operator, franchisor and licensor of convenience stores, with more than 48,000 outlets in Europe and Asia.

FamilyMart is Japan's second largest convenience store chain, behind 7-Eleven, and the largest chain store in Korea. FamilyMart is owned and overseen by FamilyMart Company, Limited. The main shareholder is Itochu with a stake of 48.55%. Its headquarters is on the Seventeenth floor of the Sunshine60 Building in Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo.

All of the usual convenience store goods such as basic grocery items, magazines, manga, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks like sake, nikuman, fried chicken, onigiri, and bento are available.

Growth and Development
The first FamilyMart opened in Japan on January 30, 1972. Since then, FamilyMart begun to spread throughout Europe and Asia and first opened stores in Thailand, Korea, China, Vietnam, Portugal, Denmark-Norway, Slovakia, Finland, and Italy. As of August 31, 2011, there are 52,710 stores worldwide, with fast growth in Asia and Europe outside of Japan.

On January 25, 2005, FamilyMart began trials of an automatic cashier station at one of its Tokyo locations in cooperation with Itochu and Toshiba. Special tags on items in the customer's shopping basket are remotely and instantly sensed at the register. It was later featured at some of its European stores as well.

FamilyMart will soon launch in India and will be under the ownership of Godrej Group and Itochu.

Solar Power
Family Mart has had solar power at some of its stores since at least 1999, and by 2008 half the stores worldwide are solar powered. As of 2012 it is hoping to continue its increase its solar energy involvement in the near future.