ABC Store

ABC Stores is like:
Ross Dress-​for-​less meets 7-​Eleven
or
Circle K meets Hilo Hattie
or
K-​Mart meets a corner Liquor store
or
Fisherman’s Wharf tourist trinket trap meets Safeway in a small room
or
Walmart meets a small corner Ma and Pa store
or
in Japan, Lawson’s meets Dai-​Ichi.
If you’ve ever been to Waikiki, you know what I mean. There are dozens of little ABC Stores, which are seemingly a Godsend, the Mecca, no the Buddhist Temple for Japanese tourists.
So it goes in Guam. Tumon is fashioned after Waikiki, with its row of resort hotels (Marriott, Hilton, Westin, and many others), its high end shopping like Ala Moana (Chanel, Fendi, Tiffany, Coach, Bally’s and on and on), and its tourist traps.
But every Japanese tourist flocks to ABC Stores, whether here or in Hawaii. Why?
— familiar and cheap comfort foods like sushi and Ito En green tea
— cheap Omiage (gifts) for the relatives that say «Guam» on it
— they’re used to Lawson’s or 7-​Eleven in Japan!
In Japan, these are called Kon Bin or Kon Bini, or something like that. Which is the word Convenient (Store) pronounced with a limited Japanese phonetic sound, chopped up and shortened like the Japanese like to do, to make the borrowed word sound Japanese!
The main difference between ABC Stores here and Lawson’s in Japan, are that Lawson’s has a lot more Manga!
This one is store #509. There are at least two ABC stores within a couple of blocks of each other here, just like in Waikiki.
Where all the other Japanese tourists are that had a little more money than those here in Guam.
In the Konbin or Konbini or uh, er, well, the Eh Bi Shi Tsu To Wa.