Uwajimaya plans ‘soft opening’ at Renton Village for late June

By Dean Radford • April 3, 2009 6:53 pm
Signs heralding the arrival next month of the new Uwajimaya store went up Tuesday at the Renton Village Shopping Center. The store is replacing the Thriftway that closed last month.
Signs heralding the arrival next month of the new Uwajimaya store went up Tuesday at the Renton Village Shopping Center. The store is replacing the Thriftway that closed last month.

The target date for a “soft opening” of a new Uwajimaya store in the Renton Village Shopping Center on Grady Way is June 28.

A grand opening and party is planned for about three weeks after that.

The Uwajimaya store is taking over the space formerly used by Thriftway for many years, before it closed last month.

The Seattle-based Asian specialty store has obtained a permit from the City of Renton to remodel the interior of the building.

The 30,000-square-foot Renton Uwajimaya will feature Asian gifts, groceries, produce, specialty meats and seafood, as well as an Uwajimaya deli offering sushi and other Asian hot and prepared foods, along with American grocery standards.

“Uwajimaya has been looking for an opportunity to strategically grow its business within the greater Puget Sound marketplace, and this Renton location made a great sense for our plan,” said Tomoko Moriguchi Matsuno, Uwajimaya Inc. president and CEO, in a press release.

Mayor Denis Law said Uwajimaya is a “well-respected company, a regionally recognized brand, and a strong corporate citizen.” The company has joined the Renton Chamber of Commerce.

Uwajimaya spokesman Alan Kurimura said in an e-mail the branch of the Boeing Employee Credit Union within the space will remain open during the interior remodel and the preparations to open the new store.

The store director is Don Sakai, who company officials referred to as the company’s most experienced director. He comes to Renton from Uwajimaya Beaverton in Oregon.

“We want Uwajimaya Renton to be both a destination for all things Asians and a neighborhood grocery store. With our quality produce, seafood, meat and baked goods, Uwajimaya Renton can be a preferred supermarket for everyone,” said Paul Saito, the company’s vice president for retail operations, said in the press release.

Besides Beaverton, the 80-year-old, family owned Uwajimaya, Inc., has stores in Seattle and Bellevue. Fujimatsu and Sadako Moriguchi started Uwajimaya in 1928 as a small grocery in Tacoma, catering to Japanese immigrants.

The Moriguchi family and Uwajimaya moved to Seattle in 1946. Today, Uwajimaya operates three supermarkets, a food processing division and a wholesale foodservice subsidiary, according to the company.

Uwajimaya employs more than 450 people in Washington and Oregon.