Nate Meyvis

Most brilliant business model I’ve seen recently, and unfortunately I didn’t think to get the name: Suppose you are out and around Tokyo and are running out of cell phone batteries.

As someone who has had this happen quite often, I know there are two remedies. One, go to your contracted cell chain and get a free charge, but then you’re waiting for an hour. Two, buy a battery pack for $20 at a convenience store. This seems wasteful.

I have at least half a dozen at home and never remember to a) have a hot spare charged and b) have it with me on a day where I will be out and about. Enter a new kiosk at extremely widely distributed convenience stores, which will rent you a charged battery pack for $2 a day.

You put down a $25 deposit with PayPay/etc and it is refunded when you return the battery pack, which you can do to any kiosk of the scheme, which are at all of the chain’s stores in Tokyo, so never more than 3 minutes away.

On the surface of it this is just a great business for a convenience store, since it sells a $2 service which is effectively 100% margin. A battery has hundreds of charging cycles in it; the capex is negligible.

But it does something even more important for the store. It brings you in the door TWICE. Which gives them two more bites at your wallet and increases your affinity for their chain over the others locked in to-the-knives competition for every last ten.

* yen It’s also interesting the extent to which this is intrinsically a fusion of a software, hardware, and bricks and mortar business.