A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 23

This is the 13th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with a great story idea is to come up with a lot of ideas. And the best way to come up with a lot of ideas is to be proactive in sourcing story ideas.

Today’s story: A Grudge Match in Japan: One Corner, Two 7-Elevens.

Inside the war between a very powerful company and a very stubborn franchisee, complete with threats, spies and videotape.

HIGASHI-OSAKA, Japan — Across Japan, it can seem as if there’s a 7-Eleven on every corner.

Now, on a single corner in a working-class suburb of Osaka, there are two.

The unusual pairing is the latest manifestation of a grudge match between one of Japan’s most powerful companies and, arguably, one of its most stubborn men.

Mitoshi Matsumoto, a franchisee, ran one of the two 7-Elevens until the chain revoked his contract in 2019 after he dared to shorten his operating hours. For over a year, his store has sat empty as he and 7-Eleven have battled in court over control of the shop. Fed up and with no end in sight, the company decided on a stopgap: It built a second shop in what used to be Mr. Matsumoto’s parking lot.

The conflict’s outcome will determine not just who gets to sell rice balls and cigarettes from one tiny patch of asphalt and concrete. It could also have profound implications for 7-Eleven’s authority over tens of thousands of franchise shops across Japan, part of a convenience store network so ubiquitous that the government considers it vital to the national infrastructure during emergencies.

7-Eleven has gone to surprising lengths against Mr. Matsumoto. It hired a team of private investigators to watch his store for months, collecting grainy video that, the company asserts, shows him head-butting one customer and attacking another’s car with a flying kick. It has also compiled a dossier of complaints against him, including one over a bungled giveaway of “commemorative mayonnaise.” And now it says it plans to charge him for the cost of building the second shop next to his.

The company maintains that it moved against Mr. Matsumoto simply because he was a bad franchisee. But he argues that it is no coincidence that the company’s view of him dimmed sharply after he said he would defy its rigid demand that stores stay open around the clock.

I’m not interested in a store owner versus corporation. Rather, what appeals to me is two convenience stores, across the store from each other. A kind of Hatfield and McCoys blood feud which escalates into actual comedic violence.

I don’t have time to flesh it out much more than this: Long-time convenience store owned by this guy:

A customer played by this guy:

They a longstanding feud dating back years. Something about Travolta owing Jackson fifty cents for a candy bar which Travolta allegedly has never paid off. this really pisses off Travolta, a man who prides himself in being good for his word. So one day, Travolta has had enough and stomps off vowing revenge.

Cut to a few days later: Travolta has bought a boarded up store across the street. In a manner of days, he has transformed it into a rival convenience store.

Hijinks, mayhem, and rising violence ensue

That’s my 23rd story in this month’s series. What would YOU do with this setup? Other stories in this year’s A Story Idea Each Day for a Month:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.