Shopping in Japanese: Phrases for Shops and Konbini

What staff say before you say anything

The first Japanese you hear in a shop is aimed at the room, not at you. Irasshaimase is a welcome call, and it needs no reply at all; answering it with konnichiwa is a harmless but visibly foreign move. If someone follows up with nanika o-sagashi desu ka, that is a genuine question and it does want an answer, so keep one response for yes and one for no ready before you need them. Notice the polite prefix o in o-sagashi, o-mochi, and o-shiharai: it signals that the sentence is about you.

Asking prices and quantities

Ikura desu ka is the one question every shopper needs, and pointing while you say kore makes it work anywhere. The reply is a number, so a little work on counters and prices pays for itself here; the numbers and counters guide covers the shapes that give learners trouble. If the price sounds high, zeikomi desu ka asks whether tax is already included, which is a normal and useful question in Japan because both tax-included and pre-tax prices appear on shelf labels.

Quantities use the small native counters for unlabelled items: hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu. Adding kudasai straight after a number is enough to buy something, and you do not need to name the object at all if you are already holding it or pointing at it. For a whole shelf of identical goods, zenbu de ikura desu ka asks for the total rather than the unit price, which is the more useful question when you are buying gifts in bulk.

Browsing without being followed

In smaller shops an assistant may stay close and comment on what you touch. Mite iru dake desu closes that politely and is understood everywhere. Chotto mite mo ii desu ka asks permission to look at something behind glass or on a display, and it is worth saying rather than reaching. If you decide against buying, mata kimasu leaves the door open without an awkward apology.

Colours, sizes, and stock

The pattern arimasu ka, meaning do you have it, carries almost every request in a clothing or electronics shop. Put the thing you want in front of wa and you are done: hoka no iro wa arimasu ka, emu saizu wa arimasu ka. The comparative mō sukoshi, meaning a little more, turns one adjective into a full request, so mō sukoshi ōkii no is a slightly bigger one.

Two replies cover most outcomes. Zaiko o kakunin shimasu means the assistant is going to check the stockroom, so stay where you are. Kirashite orimasu is humble language for we are out of stock, and it is the polite verbal shrug that ends the conversation.

Trying things on and deciding

Shichaku means trying on clothes, and shichaku shite mo ii desu ka is the standard request. Expect to remove your shoes at the fitting room and, in many shops, to be handed a thin face cover so make-up does not mark the garment. When you come out, staff often ask ikaga deshita ka, meaning how was it, and they are not pressing you to buy. Two answers end the visit cleanly: kore ni shimasu moves you to the register, and sukoshi kangaemasu is a complete, accepted refusal that needs no excuse.

The convenience store checkout, question by question

A konbini checkout is a fixed sequence, and the whole thing lasts about twenty seconds. The clerk scans, then asks between two and five questions depending on what you bought: a bag, heating for hot food, chopsticks or a spoon, a point card, and payment method. Because the questions are keigo, they are longer than they need to be, so listen for the one content word in the middle and ignore the polite packaging around it.

The keywords are fukuro for bag, atatame for heating, hashi for chopsticks, pointo for the loyalty card, and shiharai for payment. Catch one of those and you can answer correctly even if the rest of the sentence went past you. Onegai shimasu accepts, daijōbu desu declines, and sonomama de turns down heating without sounding blunt.

Paying, bags, and change

Payment is announced with de, the particle of means: genkin de, kādo de. Since paid plastic bags became standard, asking for one is a small transaction of its own, and fukuro o ichi-mai kudasai is the natural way to buy one. Staff narrate the money as they take it, and the two phrases you will hear every single time are o-azukari shimasu, meaning I receive this from you, and otsuri desu for your change.

Tax-free counters

Larger shops and department stores run a separate tax-free counter for visitors, marked in English as well as Japanese. You need your passport, and the purchase is usually processed either at the register or upstairs at a dedicated desk. Menzei is the word to listen for and the word to say, so menzei wa dekimasu ka opens the whole conversation.

Two instructions come back reliably. You will be asked to sign, koko ni sain o onegai shimasu, and consumable goods are sealed in a bag you are asked not to open before leaving Japan. The staff explain this quickly, so it helps to already know what the sentence is about.

Department store politeness you only need to understand

Department stores speak the most formal Japanese you will meet in daily life, full of forms such as yoroshii deshō ka and itashimasu. You are not expected to answer in the same register; polite desu and masu is perfectly correct from a customer. What matters is recognising three recurring questions: whether these items go on one bill, whether the purchase is a gift, and whether you want it wrapped.

Answers stay short. Issho de onegai shimasu keeps the items together, betsubetsu de onegai shimasu splits them, and purezento-yō de onegai shimasu asks for gift wrapping. The honorifics guide explains why staff language is shaped this way, but for shopping you only ever need to recognise it.

How to train the listening half

Shopping is the one topic where reading the phrases is genuinely not enough, because you will spend most of the exchange listening. Split your practice: rehearse your own lines until they are automatic, then spend equal time on the staff lines so that a compressed fukuro wa go-riyō desu ka registers as bag, yes or no.

• Say the six checkout questions aloud yourself, fast, so your ear learns their rhythm from the inside.
• Drill the answers in pairs: onegai shimasu against daijōbu desu, until choosing between them takes no thought.
• Rehearse one full transaction a day with a different item: hot food, a drink, clothing, a gift.
• Learn the keyword of each question separately, then practise catching it inside the full polite sentence.
• Add one recovery line, mō ichido onegai shimasu, and use it instead of freezing when a question surprises you.