Lost in the Basement

Lost in the Basement

In Japan, in the basement of every department store is the FOOD section. There are tons of kinds of food. Maybe about 1/3 of it is gift foods. Food you'd take has a present when you visit somebody or when you are giving gifts to acquaintances on gift giving holidays. Another 1/3 is prepared foods meant to take home and eat. Kind of like buying potato salad from a deli. You can buy all kinds of things from beef curry to sushi to fried chicken. The last 1/3 is supply foods like meats and breads, cheeses and pickles and things like that.

It seems like the basement is always to busiest floor of any department store.

These are pictures from one department store in Kawasaki. I only took pictures of about 1/3 of the counters. Each counter is run like it's own store. If fact I expect they are individually owned except for a few that the department store owns. Most likely the gift foods are owned by the department store.

Meats, Potatoes, Salads

Cheese, Dried Fish, Pickles

Breads, Yams, Jellies

Cookies, Breads, Crackers

Cookies, More Cookies, Pastries

Cakes, Cookies, Chocolates

Gels?, Cookies, Cakes

Candies

All images not copyright me copyright their respective companies. Everything else copyright me.

Comments:

bakayaroooo!! [ e ]

put pictures of the cakes plzzzzz

plzzz put pictures of shortcakes- strawberry on.

biii

posted by anon_kreyaFebruary 12, 2003 at 15:26

did u encounter whale meat in any form? [ e ]

hi,

it's because i heard it's a delicacy there; so maybe in the gift food departments.
--
regards,
-- a wolf

posted by wolfAugust 13, 2003 at 20:08

eating whale [ e ]

yes, I've had whale before although I've only encountered it a couple of times. Much much more common is horse meat. You can get the at many many places.

posted by greggmanAugust 13, 2003 at 23:13

COokies in Japan [ e ]

Hi There ,

im a university student studyign in Australia.

Im trying to find information about the cookies demand in Japan. Im trying to introduce an australian-owned Cookie company into the Japanese Market . This is just for my Marketing Major Assignment.

Will you be able to tell me whats the market is like for cookies in Japan ? Will the Australian company likely to succeed ??

thansk heaps !

posted by kathyMay 18, 2004 at 0:05

Cookies [ e ]

I don't see why not. There are lots of cookie companies here. Japanese generally prefer their cookies slightly less sweat than Americans. I'm not sure how Austrailian cookies compare. Otherwise it's about marketing and presentation. Generally the classier they appear the better.

posted by greggmanMay 18, 2004 at 9:47