BELLEVUE, Wash. The shelves are stocked, the produce out and the cash registers are ready to go.
It's the grand opening of the new Uwajimaya Asian grocery store in Bellevue. The opening has been weeks in the making, as the store moves from an older smaller store on the Eastside to a new 35,000 square foot building in a centrally located area off NE 8th and 120th streets.
We have established ourselves in Seattle, but our goal now is to provide our quality service to the Eastside. This new store will provide that, said store manager Hiroshi Hibi.
The store opening comes on the heels of the devastating earthquake in Japan. Japan provides a large number of products to the store. The earthquake and tsunami, followed by concerns of radiation from broken nuclear reactors, has raised concerns about what is coming out of that country.
We are not concerned about radiation in our products, most of what we get is dry goods, said Hibi. Most of these items are packaged so far ahead, radiation is not a concern.
The bigger problem is supply. For the most part, distribution centers should have much of the products in house.
We may have trouble getting in asian delicacies from Japan, said Hibi, but a lot of the major vendors have plants domestically, so there shouldn't be much of a disruption.
The store officially opened its doors 11 a.m. Friday, although customers were trying to get in much earlier. The store will be open from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
