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Family Mart stationery takes Japanese “stationary” to new levels

Oona McGee Jun 3, 2024
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Exclusive new collection focusses on convenience with interesting design details.

Japanese convenience stores are known for being, well, convenient, but Family Mart has been taking that concept to new levels in recent years with its “Convenience Wear” line of apparel. Now it’s expanding on the popularity of that range with a new stationery line.

▼ Convenience Wear

Created in conjunction with leading stationery manufacturer Kokuyo, whose signature product is the top-selling Campus notebooks, the new range incorporates Family Mart’s distinctive brand colours and focusses on stationery chosen for both its functionality and design.

While the range has been gaining attention around Japan, one thing that was overlooked was the spelling on the display stands, which uses the word “stationary” (which means “not moving” or “not changing”) instead of the correct “stationery”, the word for office materials.

Curious to see if Family Mart’s stationery was better than its spelling, we picked up a few of the main items and took them home to try them out.

After laying them all out, it was clear that all the items in the range were designed to complement each other with a subdued colour palette of white, black and grey. The standout in the collection, though, was the Campus notebook (178 yen [US$1.13]) for the A6 size), which just about everybody in Japan uses during their school days, but this one was unlike any we’d seen before, as the white book was accented with…

▼…Family Mart’s brand colours!

The green, white and blue colours are instantly recognisable as belonging to Family Mart without explicitly mentioning the company name, giving the notebook a cool look. It’s a clever technique that’s also seen in the “Eraser with Many Corners” (348 yen), which has a whopping 28 corners for precision erasing.

What we were most impressed with was the colour of the markers, which, unlike regular highlighters, has a more subdued intensity, making them easier on the eyes.

▼ Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink

There are nine colours to collect, with the four above available separately, priced at 198 yen each. We couldn’t resist splurging on an extra set (pictured below), which is only available in limited quantities, and is sold under a beautiful name.

▼ The Colour of Sky and Time (990 yen)

As the name suggests, these pens feature colours related to the sky, at different times of the day. Each colour has been given an equally emotive name that adds to the fun of using them.

・Night sky navy blue
・Dusk purple
・Sunset orange
・Sunny blue
・Dawn yellow

The colours themselves are beautiful, and a wonderful way to capture the essence of a convenience store, which remains open for business as the sky changes from morning to night and back again.

Another favourite of ours was the Campus in Front of PC Size Memo (268 yen), a compact, spiral-bound notebook that conveniently opens flat so it doesn’t get in the way of PC work.

▼ The grid pages are especially convenient for artists and designers.

Other notable items include:

▼ Staple-less Stapler (878 yen)

▼ Line Socks Eraser (280 yen), which looks like a Family Mart Convenience Wear sock

▼ Sliding Scissors (870 yen) with retractable blades

▼ Glue Stick (298 yen)

▼ Liquid Glue Stick (248 yen)

Every item in the range is sleek and easy to use, which is what we’ve come to expect from both Family Mart and Kokuyo, the latter of which is so famous it even has its own vending machine at Haneda Airport.

With a lot of the stationery items matching the colour of Family Mart’s Convenience Wear line, you can now match your outfit to your office goods, which we’ve gotta admit, is pretty convenient. Plus, with the Family Mart laundromat being a thing, the chain has us covered, literally, from head to toe!

Related: Family Mart Goods
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[ Read in Japanese ]