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Popular NYC grocery store opens Bay Area location to massive line out the door · Best of: Features

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  Popular NYC grocery store opens Bay Area location to massive line out
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  the door. Written by Jessica Yadigerin. This article is being read by
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  an automated voice generated by Everlet. On Friday morning, San Jose's Alex
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  Cheng and his co workers decided to take an early lunch. Not
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  for a round of golf or off site meeting, but to stand
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  in line at the debut of the Bay Area's latest Wow Factor
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  supermarket, Hashi Market in Cupertino. We were curious to see it, Cheng
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  said. They didn't do a lot of marketing on social media until
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  just a few days ago, so it added some intrigue. Hashi Market,
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  which has six locations in New York City, opened its doors on
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  Stevens Creek Boulevard at ten AM to a swarm of curious and
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  very patient customers. About one thousand seven hundred by day's end, who
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  started lining up as early as seven thirty AM. The line went
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  out the door and consumed the entire parking lot, snaking like a
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  TSAQ. Cashiers were ringing up three hundred transactions an hour for most
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  of the morning. For the occasion, Hashi Market brought in local Yosakoi
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  dance troupe Uzumaru to perform in front of what is the company's
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  first location on the West Coast. Their energetic movements set the tone
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  for the momentous occasion. This is our flagship store in California, so
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  we really put a lot of passion and energy and effort into
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  this location. Ivalu, head of operations, told SF Gate once inside the
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  store, year. A station sampling tuna sashimi air freighted from Japan. Liu
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  said the company chose the city of Cupertino simply because it's a
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  central place for California. Apple is here. Everyone knows it. Hashi Market
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  is part of a wave of new Asian supermarkets opening in The
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  Bay Area this year. Canadian favorite TNT supermarket arrived in San Jose
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  in June, just months after Tokyo Central made its Emeryville debut in
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  February, drawing some 8,000 people to the Bay Street Mall. In March,
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  Korean megastore Hmart opened its long-awaited Dublin location, welcoming 10,000 shoppers throughout
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  the day. The twenty thousand square foot hashi market, a former Sprouts
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  farmers market, specializes in imported Japanese products, from snacks and produce to
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  seafood, meat, and sake. It has a large selection of items from
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  Hakado, including beef, rice, cheesecake, premium chocolate, and melons that fetch fifty
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  nine dollars. Hashi also has its own bakery and two massive aisles
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  devoted to lifestyle and beauty products from brands like Senka, Canmake and
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  Bonbori. But it's the grab and go section that's truly a marvel
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  and a Soon, for nearby tech workers like Cheng or students at
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  Da Anza College just down the road. Three large format kiosks feature
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  an array of freshly prepared foods, from chicken katsubentos and curry bowls
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  to salmon teryiki and twenty six dollars a five Wagyu rice bowls.
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  On the far right of the store an entire wall is devoted
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  to sushi rolls and boxes of nigiri. Soon all sushi offerings will
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  be discounted by thirty percent after eight PM, Lou said, a practice
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  that has proven successful in Hashi Market's New York City stores. We
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  are the fastest growing Japanese market In
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  New York Justin Lee, Operations Director, told SF Gate earlier this month
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  via phone, referring to the number of stores Hashi has opened since
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  its New York debut in twenty twenty four. Entrepreneurs, we like to
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  go fast. Japan has become such a big part of the US,
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  so many people are going there, and there is simply a gap
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  in the market that we saw that we could contribute to and
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  fulfill. In addition to the six locations in New York City, two
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  or more are slated to open in Chelsea and the Upper East
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  Side. The chain is growing at a rapid pace nationally too. In
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  addition to the Cupertino store, Lee told SF Gate that Hashi Market
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  is planning to debut fifteen more stores by the end of twenty
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  twenty seven, including in Massachusetts and Colorado. In the Bay Area, Cupertino
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  is just the beginning for Hashi. The company has acquired Chinese grocery
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  stores named Marina Grocery in Milpitas, San Mateo and Union City, which
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  appear as renovating on the Hashi website. Currently, it's adding Japanese items
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  to test demand and determine if these locations will become Hashi Markets
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  or another brand within the Toyo Group portfolio, Lou said. The Milpita
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  store, for instance, has quietly transitioned some of its advertising and branding
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  to reflect the Hashi name. It also added signs for Fujiisa, the
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  matcha tea and soft serve kiosk popular in the New York stores,
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  Liu confirmed. Overall, she said she was really surprised by the turnout
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  on Friday morning at the new Cupertino store, and that there was
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  still a line of people trying to get into the store at
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  eleven AM I'm from New York, Lou said. We have lines, but
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  not like this. Hashi Market, twenty thousand five hundred and fifty eight
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  Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, open daily, eight AM to eleven PM. Editors
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  Note This story was updated at nine forty AM, october thirteenth, to
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  correct where the Yosukoi dancers are from.