**** Updates for Marukai San Diego can be found here.
Well, as reported by FOYs (Fred and Carol) in comments to this post, Marukai has gone forward with a "soft opening" to shake out bugs and get people trained. The signs out front still say "Opening February 1st", but as the Missus noted this past Friday in a hurried cell phone call, "the lights are on, and people look like they're shopping."
I drove by later that evening and saw people pushing shopping carts filled with grocery bags in the parking lot. This meant one of 2 things; either Marukai had gone the soft opening route(as the West Covina did years ago), or this was one heck of a training drill!
Having a full plate most of the weekend, I managed to drag my wind-burned and rain soaked self to Marukai this morning. I arrived at about 930am, to find the place empty. I grabbed a shopping basket, and started walking......
On my first lap, I just did a quick check of "what wasn't there"....fish department and prepared foods. I've always had good luck with the fish I've purchased at Marukai, and was a regular at West Covina, where I could ask the Fishmongers to cut my maguro, or hold ogo for me when we lived in LA. The meat department didn't look fully stocked either.
After looking through the Japanese offerings - 3 brands of Shiokara, anyone? Which was adequate...and the prices which are as a whole cheaper than the other 2 large Japanese markets
in San Diego. I started going through my mental lists of "Local Kine Stuffs".......
Purity and Redondo's Portuguese Sausage - check.
S & S Saimin - but no Okuhara's - but Sun's Okinawa Soba - maybe three-quarters of a check???
Frozen Zippy's stuff - check.
Frozen Okuhara Kamabuko(it doesn't taste quite the same...but it's still ok) - check.
2 Brands of Lau Lau(both of which I hate....but if it floats your boat) - check.
Coral Tuna - but only water packed, not oil packed - one-fourth of a check.
Pa'akai and another brand of Hawaiian salt - but Auwe! No moa' Alaea! (red sea salt) - kinda, sorta a check!
Aloha shoyu and other sauces - check!
Hawaiian Sun Jam and Jellies - check!
Malolo Syrup - but all lemon lime, and one lonely strawberry - a reluctant check.
Diamond Head Bakery Soda and Saloon Pilot Cracker - check.
Enough Chocolate covered Macadamian Nuts, cookies, and sweets, to keep all of San Diego's Dentists in business till the next century.
No moa Maebo's One Ton Chips which I was looking for.
No Halm's or Park's brand stuff either......
By this time the handles to the shopping basket were digging into my hands, and I got tired of shooting my photos one-handed, so I decided to call it a day.
Tonight I'm taking a trip back into time, and having something I haven't had in years:
Something simple.....it is just frozen stuff, and some pretty bland Char Siu, but for a somewhat homesick Ex-Pat Kama'aina...a little slice of heaven.
Marukai Market
8151 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111
A couple of notes: Marukai is a membership market, though you can pay $1 for a one-day membership. The manager on duty said that I didn't need a membership to shop on this morning, because I wanted to renew my card. But after speaking to Cathy today, I found that they had her purchase a membership - which is $10/year(and in my mind more than worth it) so I dunno. This parking lot is going to be a horror......it is not nearly big enough for Daiso, Marukai Living, and Marukai Market...... The Manager also told me, that not everything has come in yet, so there are more items to be stocked.
This Marukai does indeed have a good selection of Hawaiian food...but the customer service is terrible, and I'm not sure it's worth going back.
I signed up for a card during the May membership drive Jenne mentioned, not realizing that you need to get a coupon from the Marukai store that issues a card to get the 10% off at the other stores. At the checkout, the manager of the Marukai market refused to honor the 10% discount on my $120 purchase without the coupon even though the new membership card had the issue date stamped on it...duh...and said I had to go back to the issuing store (Daiso) to get the coupon or lose the discount.
Terrible customer service...a good manager would call the other store to confirm the issuance of the card, or would have had one of his employees go check instead of making the customer check. I was very disappointed and will probably stick to Nijiya even though its selection of Hawaiian food is not as good.
Posted by: Lori | Friday, 13 June 2008 at 07:28 PM
Hi Lori - That doesn't sound like good customer service, especially since I've seen people shopping without memberships. I've never had a problem at any Marukai location. However, whenever I've had inquiries, I've gotten fairly prompt responses by email:
info@marukai.com
I still shop a lot at Nijiya, but it's always good to have a second(and third) option.
Posted by: Kirk | Friday, 13 June 2008 at 07:37 PM