TOKYO, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Sales at Japan's convenience stores in January increased 0.4 percent from a year earlier, the Japan Franchise Association said Thursday.
Same-store sales of seven major convenience franchises totaled 835.3 billion yen (7.5 billion U.S. dollars), the association said.
The number of customers fell 0.8 percent, marking the fourth straight month of decline.
Average spending per customer increased 1.2 percent to 648.60 yen (5.8 dollars), up for the fourth month in a row.
The industry body attributed the slight rise of sales to the government's shopping point program for cashless payments, purchases of prepared food and strong demand for products such as masks and disinfectants.
The shopping point rebate program was introduced to help cushion the impact of the 2-percent consumption tax hike last October.
