Heiwado has opened its new Alpla Foods Market store on the site of the wholesale market in Toyama City. It is the company's first new store opening in the prefecture in 26 years, while competition is intensifying as drugstores and consumer electronics retailers have also opened nearby.
Heiwado's new Alpla Foods Market store has opened on the site of the wholesale market in Toyama City, where redevelopment is under way. A long line had formed before opening, and many shoppers took notice of the store's arrival, low prices and freshness.
The store has approximately 2,000 square meters of sales floor space and offers a product lineup focused on freshness, including locally produced seafood and vegetables and prepared foods made with them. Drugstores and a sporting-goods retailer have opened nearby, and a consumer electronics retailer will open on the 25th, with the area seeking to attract customers as a mixed-use commercial facility.
Al Plaza Toyama and other competing stores are already operating across the river in the prefecture, raising questions about a strategy based on Heiwado's previous store-opening pattern. An executive at Heiwado said the company is considering whether its approach of opening supermarkets around large stores can also be adopted in Hokuriku.