From our other sites
The story
Rice market prices, after their earlier spike, have now turned downward — and bento shops and restaurants are increasingly bringing back discounted “extra-large rice” servings and “free refills.” With overall inflation keeping customers away, the aim is to win them back by cutting the price of their staple food, rice. Meanwhile, on the forum thread, many posters complained that convenience store onigiri and packaged rice show no sign of getting cheaper and remain stuck at high prices, drawing frustration and sarcasm over the uneven response across different types of businesses. Whether the price cuts spread further remains uncertain, tangled up with rising costs for materials and labor.
Sat, Sep 26, 1:40 PM JST
Yomiuri Shimbun Online
Rice market prices, which had spiked temporarily, have now fallen, and takeout and dine-in restaurants are increasingly reviving discounted “extra-large rice” servings and “free refills.” As soaring prices for food and other goods weigh on household budgets, the move aims to secure customers by cutting the price of their “staple food.” At the same time, material and labor costs continue to rise, and attention is focused on how far rice price cuts will spread. (By Minako Aima)
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Tasty rice, all you can eat.
Bento shops are the best.
At my local store a plain onigiri with just salt is about 180 yen lol
Convenience stores bought a whole year's worth of rice last fall while prices were high, so they can't cut prices until they use up that stock.
Nope, won't happen.
Convenience stores are always watching for a chance to raise prices,
and once they raise them, they never bring them back down.
That's exactly why they're losing to smaller discount supermarkets like Maibasuket.
The reason they'll keep getting wiped out going forward is that they won't change that strategy —
it's not about the price of rice or any single item.
Exactly.
Everybody jumped on the bandwagon and jacked up prices while they could.
They didn't lower the price, they just made it bigger lol
Nori bento used to be about 300 yen, now it's around 500 yen.
The fish on top of the nori bento has probably gotten pricier too.
Everyone stops in front of the onigiri section, doesn't reach for one, and just walks away — it's funny watching it happen over and over.
They'll probably keep citing packaging and shipping costs as excuses not to lower it. Maybe once sales drop they'll be forced to.
If you think about it normally,
it's because they bought the rice before prices dropped.
Well, no idea if they'll actually cut prices going forward or not though.
Fried chicken bento (4 pieces) used to be 300 yen, still stuck at 550.
Chicken has gone up in price even more than rice —
it's at an all-time high right now.
550 yen? That's basically a miracle price these days.
The honest, fair-priced bento shops are dropping like flies, so cut them some slack.
Apparently the naphtha shortage has driven up plastic container costs, and they're getting squeezed hard by food trucks and delivery too.
Made it myself.
https://image-tm.s2mr.jp/i/original/1790428739351.jpeg
Sure, some of it is that the rice itself is bad, but I think how it's cooked matters more for the taste.
Restaurants usually use gas rice cookers that do at least 3-sho batches (about 5.4 liters), and gas cookers make the tastiest rice.
At most all-you-can-eat places with bad rice, it's because they use way too little water when cooking it.
You get tired of eating wheat-flour stuff.
Isn't it embarrassing to generalize like that?
Personally I prefer domestic rice.
I don't mind long-grain rice either depending on the dish — I just like rice itself.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Rice prices, after a temporary spike in recent years (the so-called “Reiwa rice crisis”), have been trending downward as supply has stabilized. However, how quickly the price cuts get passed on varies by business type. As pointed out on the thread, convenience store onigiri and packaged rice face circumstances like “can’t lower prices until last year’s high-priced stock is used up” and “packaging and shipping costs are a separate expense.” Behind why bento shop price hikes haven’t reversed is the rise in costs for ingredients other than rice, such as chicken, along with labor costs, plus the fact that more shops are going out of business due to soaring costs for materials like plastic containers. The thread was split between those simply welcoming the return of price cuts and free refills, and those frustrated that “only some business types are keeping prices high without cutting.” Underlying this is the structural reality that the price of takeout and restaurant food isn’t determined by the cost of rice alone.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Rice] ‘Extra-Large Rice’ Discounts and ‘Free Refills’ Making a Comeback… As Rice Prices Fall, Bento Shops and Restaurants Say ‘Eat Until You’re Full’.”
Leave a Reply