No wonder, then, that the boards of Mitsukoshi and Isetan, the country’s fourth- and fifth-largest department store
chains, laid plans for a merger that would create the country’s biggest retail group, with $14 billion in annual sales. The deal is
Prices of every purchase are added up automatically. When she has finished shopping, the customer hands her card to a cashier who 4 ___ it to the register. A second later the total pops out. Shop lifting is physically impossible.
One man is enough to keep the vending machines filled, because if the stock for a certain commodity is 7 ___ to run out, a red lamp in the computer room 8 ___ him or her. But there are disadvantages too: a customer cannot change his or her mind 9 ___ a purchase. Once 10 ___ , the item cannot be put back. The customer must go through a cashier with it first and get a refund later. There are also no fresh vegetables or fish on sale—everything is prepackaged.