On Friday morning, San Jose’s Alex Cheng and his co-workers decided to take an early lunch. Not for a round of golf or off-site meeting, but to stand in line at the debut of the Bay Area’s latest wow-factor supermarket, Hashi Market in Cupertino.
“We were curious to see it,” Cheng said. “They didn’t do a lot of marketing on social media until just a few days ago. So it added some intrigue.”
Hashi Market, which has six locations in New York City, opened its doors on Stevens Creek Boulevard at 10 a.m. to a swarm of curious and very patient customers — about 1,700 by day’s end — who started lining up as early as 7:30 a.m. The line went out the door and consumed the entire parking lot, snaking like a TSA queue. Cashiers were ringing up 300 transactions an hour for most of the morning. For the occasion, Hashi Market flew in Yosakoi dancers from Japan to perform in front of what is the company’s first location on the West Coast. Their energetic movements set the tone for the momentous occasion.
“This is our flagship store in California, so we really put a lot of passion and energy and effort into this location,” Ava Liu, head of operations, told SFGATE once inside the store, near a station sampling tuna sashimi air-freighted from Japan. Liu said the company chose the city of Cupertino simply because “it’s a central place for California. Apple is here. Everyone knows it.”…