Daimaru Umeda turns its seventh floor into a Tom and Jerry street for 13 days
Daimaru Matsuzakaya is giving over the whole of Daimaru Umeda's seventh-floor event hall to a licensed Tom and Jerry pop-up from November 11 to 23 -- the kind of free-admission character fair Osaka's flagship department stores lean on to keep rotating event space earning between the bigger seasonal gift fairs.
Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores, Inc. (大丸松坂屋百貨店) said its Daimaru Umeda (大丸梅田店) flagship in Osaka will run "TOM and JERRY Wakuwaku Street in Osaka" (TOM and JERRYワクワクストリート in 大阪), a themed pop-up built around Warner Bros.' cat-and-mouse cartoon duo, across the store's seventh-floor special event space from November 11 to 23, according to a November 7 announcement. The event runs every day of its 13-day stretch, open 10:00 to 20:00 (18:00 on the final day), with free admission. It is organised by events company Terakoya Co., Ltd. (株式会社寺子屋) in cooperation with Warner Bros. Japan (ワーナー ブラザース ジャパン), which licenses the characters.
The floor is split into four themed sections, the company said: an "Angel & Devil" street pitting a sweet side against a spicy one; a "Food Shop" section built around Jerry and his sidekick Tuffy, with cake-, candy- and cream-patterned goods; a "Welcome to Japan Food" corner styled after sushi, tempura and onigiri; and a nostalgic festival-food street called "Fun Fun 'Omatsuri' Food." More than 200 event-exclusive items are on sale, including a ¥3,850 Tom plush, a ¥2,750 Jerry plush, a Kutani-ware (九谷焼) dish at ¥1,980 and long-sleeve T-shirts at ¥6,380, Daimaru said.
Two gift sets -- a ¥9,130 "Wakuwaku Tom" bundle and an identically priced "Wakuwaku Jerry" bundle, each built around a themed drawstring bag not sold separately -- are limited to the Osaka venue and Daimaru's Aichi store, the company said. Shoppers who spend ¥3,000 or more can also try a free, limited can-badge draw, capped at five tries per person.
A free, two-week character fair is a cheap way to keep a department store's rotating event hall occupied between the bigger seasonal gift fairs that drive most of the floor's actual sales, and a long-running licence such as Tom and Jerry carries little of the promotional cost a newer character would: the cartoon is already familiar across generations without the store having to build awareness for it. Restricting two of the pricier bundles to Osaka and Aichi also gives J. Front Retailing, Daimaru's parent, a small reason to visit a specific store rather than order online -- a modest example of department stores leaning on merchandise exclusivity rather than price to pull in footfall.