from yesterday's Nikkei

セブン＆アイ　新型店展開　都市部１００店　高齢者・共働き照準　生鮮・総菜ミニスーパー

Seven&i Holdings Co.,Ltd. will roll out new types of supermarket stores this autumn in urban areas. The sore has,on average,a total floor area less than half that of an ordinary food supermarket store. Seven&i will have 100 such stores in the central part of Tokyo in three years and reach sales of 200 billion yen.
They focus on perishables and delicatessens for sale items as well as the elderly and double-income household people for customers.

from today's Nikkei

家電の設計　国内外共通に　新興国市場に重点　パナソニック　空気清浄機３割安く　三菱電機　冷蔵庫に統一機種


According to sources familiar to the matter, major household appliance makers in Japan are going to adapt common basic designs to their products sold at home and abroad in order to reduce their costs for developing and manufacturing the products. Specifically,Panasonic Corporation will adopt common components in air purifiers put on sale simultaneously in September this year in the world markets, reducing the prices by about 30 percent. And Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has started its common desing project in refrigerators, and Toshiba Corporation also in washing mashines.

Aiming to increase the sales abroad, they want to be more compertitive in terms of costs in emerging economies, also leading to the cost cuts at home.