
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been buying beer, bread, or ice-cream at my local conbini and thought to myself, “If only I could scream a few lines of verse into a microphone without having to leave the building.” In the past, the closest I could ever get to combining convenience store shopping with singing was choosing karaoke booths located immediately next door to a 7-Eleven, but now all that is about to change.
In a special collaboration between Japan’s third-largest convenience store chain FamilyMart and nationwide operator Karaoke Club DAM, a one-of-a-kind conbini x karoke parlour will open its doors on April 17 in Tokyo.
Yes, thanks to Japan you can now shop and sing all in the same place.
Situated near Kamata Station’s south exit in Tokyo’s Ota Ward, the two companies behind the special shop ‘n’ sing are hoping to combine the convenience of a typical FamilyMart store with the high-quality karaoke facilities offered by Karaoke Club DAM’s thousands of locations across the country.
The convenience store itself will operate as normal and be open 24 hours a day, so non-singing customers will of course be welcome, but those who simply must break out into song are invited to use the special self-service karaoke booths located within the store. Purchases from within the store – which, thankfully for bashful singers, includes alcohol – can all be consumed within the private rooms, meaning that you could probably spend most of your day in there and never want for a thing.
The karaoke booths themselves will operate from 10 a.m. until 5 a.m. the following day, giving you ample time to get home and shower before anyone realises you spent the night at the conbini. Thankfully, FamilyMart also carries a selection of personal products from Muji, so even if you do crash out in a booth and are woken up the next morning by a convenience store clerk, you can always freshen up with some deodorising wipes and mouthwash before heading to the office to return to the daily grind.

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