Craving for Manam? You can buy microwaveable packs at select 7-Eleven stores

MANILA -- Here's good news for those who are craving Manam at home: the Filipino restaurant chain has partnered with 7-Eleven to offer microwaveable versions of two of its dishes in select branches.

Manam announced on Facebook that a number of 7-Eleven branches in Metro Manila are now selling microwaveable packs of the restaurant's sisig and kare-kare.

"Hopefully mabusog kayo at mabusog din ang mga puso niyo. Malayo man tayo ngayon sa isa't isa, nandito lang kami para sa inyo. To our super paboritos, ingat lagi!" the restaurant chain said.


Select Manam branches, as well as restaurants under the Moment Group, are also accepting orders for pickup and delivery.

The post below is regularly updated for restaurant schedules:

source: news.abs-cbn.com

7-Eleven struggling in face of Japan's labor, population woes

Owners of Japan's ubiquitous convenience stores are facing a business model-threatening crisis as they grapple with the nation's demographic and labor challenges.

"I love working under the 7-Eleven logo, and there is no doubt Japanese society needs convenience stores. But, honestly, headquarters has not kept pace with changes in society," said Atsushi Nara, who for 37 years has owned Seven-Eleven stores in Ibaraki Prefecture, east of Tokyo.

As the 58-year-old Nara says, convenience stores, all 58,000 of them nationwide, have increasingly become a part of the Japanese social fabric since the first 7-Eleven Japan Co. store opened in 1974, the services and readily accessible products they provide now integral to people's lives.

But Japan's severe worker shortages and rising labor costs have laid bare the shortcomings of 7-Eleven's upper management, demonstrating how the sole pursuit of revenue in businesses that operate around the clock is a fatal flaw, analysts point out.

It is not just 7-Eleven, however, as Lawson and Family Mart, the second and third biggest convenience store chains in the country, respectively, are also struggling to overcome the same problems.

"(Seven-Eleven management) has found no effective measures to address the shortage of labor that has become a burden on franchise owners, but continue to be bound by the idea that opening new outlets will lead to higher sales," Nara lamented.

"And why would they change, when they are logging strong earnings on the back of royalties collected from the stores?"

Pressure has been mounting on the industry's long-established all day, every day business model, and an intense, high-profile dispute between 7-Eleven and one of its franchisees in Higashiosaka, western Japan, just added fuel to the fire.

In February, the franchise owner began closing his store overnight due to a lack of staff. In response, 7-Eleven reprimanded him for violating his contract.

The fact the dispute made nationwide news shows just how ingrained convenience stores are into the nation's psyche.

In the wake of the dispute, the industry ministry took the rare step in April of urging convenience store operators to formulate plans to address staffing issues after a survey found an increasing number of franchises were struggling to recruit new staff and pay the wages of their increasingly expensive existing workers.

Japan's antitrust watchdog, the Fair Trade Commission, is also set to launch an investigation into whether convenience store operators are abusing a position of power to take advantage of vulnerable franchise owners, sources close to the matter have said.

In response to government requests, the large convenience store chains ostensibly formulated action plans, with features like the adoption of a lenient policy in reviewing business hours and introducing self-checkout machines and other technology.

But they have not answered calls for a review process of contracts they have with franchisees, including addressing royalty payments.

In early June, a group of convenience store owners visited the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to ask the minister to push the franchisors to provide financial support and better terms for workers through a petition signed by nearly 1,600 store owners nationwide.

"The action plan submitted by Seven-Eleven showed that their ideas of business improvements are way off," said Eiji Yoshimura, an owner of a Seven-Eleven outlet in Tokyo. "There is nothing new, just a bunch of steps it has already implemented before."

For example, while 7-Eleven said they would deploy personnel to outlets experiencing staff shortfalls, when an owner actually makes a request, he or she discovers that the hourly wage of the temporary staff is more than double the pay of current staff.

Yoshimura also cast doubt on 7-Eleven's claim that self-checkout machines will lead to reduced working hours as they would still require staff to oversee stores equipped with the technology.

He also criticized Seven-Eleven for a lack of communication with the owners, even though it pledged to do so in the action plan.

"My employees are worried about the situation surrounding the convenience store industry as there seems to be no end, no answer to this," said Nara, welcoming the moves by the government in exerting external pressure to drive change.

As the convenience store industry continues to seek ways to fix its problems, more franchise owners have been turning to foreign, part-time workers to cover shifts.

Nara said the shortage of labor is a painful problem. Even six years ago, when he opened a new 7-Eleven store, only three people came applying for a job. "I sweated it out because before, I could choose 15 to hire from 20 or 30 people who came to apply for work," he said.

"(But now) there is no way we can go on without the help of foreign workers," he said.

Sanefuji Renebel, a 30-year-old mother of two from the Philippines, is currently in her second month working for one of Nara's Seven-Eleven stores.

Still unsure about Japanese kanji, hiragana and katakana characters, she says she needs to study and review how to operate the cash registers even when she is not on shift. She works from around 9 p.m. or 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. four days a week.

"I was surprised that I had been hired," she said. "I know that we are short of labor so I want to try not to cause trouble and learn my job as fast as I can," Renebel said.

She said stores being open all day and all night is good because it allows her to work when her children are sleeping. "At first I was afraid of working late at night but the customers have familiar faces and it was okay."

Her Taiwanese co-worker, Kai Jhen, 54, also said she enjoys working at 7-Eleven despite the complexities, including operating the cash registers, handling utility bills and other public services, processing deliveries, cleaning toilets, restocking items, inspecting goods and taking out the trash.

"It cannot be helped that we are short of staff. We just need to cooperate," Kai said.

Denise Muriel Suriaga Reyes, a 27-year-old Filipino worker at a 7-Eleven store, said she assists foreign customers by explaining food items to them.

"Sometimes we have customers from Pakistan and Nepal. I tell them what kind of meat is used in the products because they cannot read Japanese," she said.

Despite the difficulties, 7-Eleven headquarters appears willing to allow store owners to run convenience stores as they see fit, as long as it does not impact the bottom line.

Ryuichi Isaka, president of 7-Eleven's parent company Seven & i Holdings Co., told a shareholders meeting in May, "We will aim for leniency in operating convenience stores but without risking falls in sales."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

7-Eleven boss reveals top-selling, game changing products

MANILA - The biggest-selling product in 7-Eleven stores in the Philippines is one of the essentials - water, according to country boss Jose Victor Paterno.

Magnum ice cream bars also signaled the shift to more premium products in convenience stores. At its launch in 2012, Magnum sold for P50, double the price of regular brands.

"I think in the last 5 years, we've seen a trend towards premiumization. Before, we couldn't sell a rice meal for over P50," said Paterno, president and CEO of Philippine Seven Corp.

Rice meals at 7-Eleven can now be sold for as much as P120, Paterno said in an exclusive interview with ANC's The Boss.

"There's a move towards affluence, even if its just occasional," he said.

Business process outsourcing is a key growth driver. Paterno said Philippine Seven needs only 3,000 people in a BPO area to open a store, compared to the 20,000 people needed in a "regular" area.

"They really overperform because they come down every break. Their breaks are short. It’s a stressful job they need to treat themselves," he said.

Paterno said the company was "at the pace we want" to reach its target of operating 10,000 7-Eleven stores, buoyed by the robust economy.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

California lottery says it has a winner in $1.6 bln Powerball jackpot

LOS ANGELES - At least one unidentified person in California won the massive $1.59-billion Powerball lottery on Wednesday, officials said after drawing the winning numbers for the world's largest potential jackpot for a single player.

The winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Chino Hills, a suburb east of Los Angeles, California Lottery officials said. No other states have reported selling a winning ticket for the $1.586-billion prize.

Crowds descended on the store after word emerged where the winning ticket had been bought, to snap pictures and congratulate the clerk. The store will receive a $1-million bonus for selling the ticket.

The six winning numbers were 08, 27, 34, 04, 19 and Powerball 10. They were picked during a late Wednesday drawing at lottery offices in Tallahassee, Florida.

The payout is worth about $930 million if a winner chooses an immediate cash payout instead of annual payments over 29 years, the Multi-State Lottery Association says. Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington, D.C. and two U.S. territories.

The odds of picking a winning combination were 1 in 292 million.

The prospect of becoming North America's newest billionaire sparked a ticket-buying frenzy that was expected to reach a rate of $1.3 million per minute during the evening commuter rush hour, Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas lottery, told a news conference.

Powerball sales were "exponentially higher" than normal, Grief said. Since the jackpot was last hit on Nov. 4, 2015, a total of $2.65 billion worth of Powerball tickets has been sold, he added.

The prospect of becoming an instant billionaire spurred ticket-buyers to imagine an affluent future.

"If I win, I'll give it all away to poor people," said New York restaurant deliveryman Osman Gamie, 43, after buying a dozen of the $2 tickets at a midtown Manhattan grocery.

Tatiann Cave, a 23-year-old home health aide, said she would use the jackpot to start her own cosmetics business.

"I'd like to quit my job and do something inspiring," Cave said.

For every $1 worth of Powerball sales, half goes to prizes, 40 percent to causes such as education, and 10 percent to retailers who sell the tickets and other administrative costs, Grief said

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Paterno, 7-Eleven Philippines founder, dies

MANILA - The founder of 7-Eleven operator Philippine Seven Corp. and former Senator Vicente T. Paterno died on Friday.

The 89-year-old Paterno was the director and chairman of Philippine Seven.

"Philippine Seven Corporation was advised by the family of the Chairman that Mr. Vicente T. Paterno passed away on November 21, 2014," the company said in a disclosure.

In 1982, Paterno founded Philippine Seven, which acquired the license to use the 7-Eleven Convenience Store system in the Philippines, along with incorporators Jose T. Pardo and Francisco Sibal.

Paterno served as chairman of the Board of Investments and Minister of Industry and also Public Highways during the Marcos administration.

During the 1986 "snap" presidential elections, Paterno was Namfrel chairman for Metro Manila.

After the elections, he was appointed chairman and president of Philippine National Oil Company in 1986, and became deputy executive secretary for energy of the Office of the President from 1986 to 1987.

Paterno was elected to the Senate in 1987 and served until 1992.

He was born in Quiapo, Manila on November 18, 1925. He graduated Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Philippines in 1948 and obtained Master of Business Administration at Harvard University in 1953.

Last year, he received the Ramon V. del Rosario, Sr. (RVR) Award for Nation Building.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

PAL ticket payments made easy through 7-Eleven

MANILA, Philippines – Travelers using Philippine Airlines (PAL) can now pay their domestic tickets at any of the 766 retail outlets of 7-Eleven nationwide.

With ECPay’s Payment Center Facility in 7-Eleven stores, those who book online would no longer have to line up at PAL to pay for their tickets. All they need to do is to simply go to their nearest 7-Eleven stores.

“This latest passenger service innovation involves a few "easy" steps: First, a passenger books a flight through the PAL website. The flight must be at least 48 hours from the time of booking. Once booking is confirmed, passenger will select "Reserve and Hold" option on the summary page. To complete the process, the passenger details are inputted and the confirmation email must be printed,” PAL said in a statement.

The passenger should go to the nearest 7-Eleven outlet and present their booking confirmation and pay the corresponding amount. The itinerary receipt (E-Ticket) and official receipt will be sent to the passenger's email address.

However, the facility only accepts payments for flight bookings done online.

PAL said the scheme also enables those without credit cards to do their bookings online at the convenience of their homes, offices, internet cafes or mobile phones.

In case of inquiries, passengers may call the ECPay Customer Support hotline at (02) 421-6032 to 35 or email customerservice@ecpay.com.ph.

source: abs-cbnnews.com