Daimaru rebuilds its Fukuoka food hall for the first time in 11 years
Daimaru's Fukuoka Tenjin store has finished its first major food-hall renovation in 11 years, rebuilding about 70% of the basement floor around Kyushu's own confectionery and bakery names — a bet that a regional flagship's best defence against convenience stores and outlet malls is a food hall shoppers can't get anywhere else.
Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores has completed the first major renovation of the food floor at its Fukuoka Tenjin store in 11 years, the company announced on August 18. The work reworked about 70% of the basement-level food hall in the store's main building, under a concept the company calls "the HUB of Kyushu."
The renovation, carried out between May and August, added more than 20 new tenants, according to the company. The floor now carries more than 50 confectionery brands and five bakery brands — in both cases, Daimaru says, the largest such lineup among Fukuoka's department stores. Several of the additions are firsts for the format: Chocolate Shop and REC COFFEE's Saison des Récoltes opened their first department-store locations in early August, followed by Pandélo later in the month; Murakami Kaishinro and Kamakura Beniya both opened permanent corners for the first time in the city and at Daimaru respectively on the August 28 reopening date. Godiva's bakery line, Godipan, is due to open its first permanent Kyushu location on August 31, days after the floor's public relaunch.
The store marked the relaunch with a five-day anniversary festival running August 26–30, and the grand opening itself fell on August 28. Kyushu strawberries feature across more than 50 products offered year-round, the company said.
For a regional flagship, an 11-year gap says as much as the renovation itself: Fukuoka Tenjin has left its basement largely untouched through a decade in which convenience-store food quality rose and inbound arrivals reshaped what a department store needs its ground floors to do. Rebuilding the depachika (basement food hall) around Kyushu-only names rather than nationwide chains is a Product bet that only a regional flagship can make — the harder a shopper can find the same shop at a Tokyo department store, the more reason to keep coming back to Tenjin's.