Citizen, that's not entirely true. In some communities (Long Beach, CA, for an example I enjoyed just this morning), dollar stores are totally useful, cheap and wholesome purveyors of food. Trick is that they buy semi-legitimately from wholesalers down on the dock or from farmers who bring stuff in locally. Sneaky, efficient, brilliant, and the best source of vitamins and substantive foodstuffs for a lot of really poor people.

which is a problem i don't even know how Japan would deal with.