Maruichi Japanese Food Store - Brookline, MA

Maruichi Japanese Food Store
Opened: 2022

Owner: Masakatsu Watarai

Previous Tenants: unknown > The Gap

Cooperative: none

Location: 306 Harvard St, Brookline, MA

Photographed: August 30, 2023; January 15, 2024; January 16, 2024; and June 18, 2024

Contributor: Maya K. and Jacob V.

Welcome to The Market Report's very first Japanese food store! I've been to a couple myself, but this actually isn't one of them, so first up very special thanks to our contributors Jacob V. and Maya K., both of whom sent in pictures of this store. As Brookline's Asian population grows, so does its selection of Asian grocers. The Brookline H Mart is not in the Coolidge Corner area, though, and is about a mile east of here -- closer to the Longwood area of Boston. Maruichi, which opened in February 2020 across the street, moved into this location previously occupied by the Gap in 2022. The previous Maruichi space across the street is now Maruichi Select, primarily a cafe.

The store is small, but definitely more of a grocery store than convenience store (as the original one appears to have been). It's somewhat upscale, and seems to have a produce department, meat, seafood, and groceries.

It looks like they didn't do much to the Gap space when they moved in, based on this picture from after the Gap closed. Just new shelving and refrigeration, of course, because the space wasn't previously a grocery store.

Because this store and H Mart are both small -- this one is around 7500 square feet and H Mart is 5500 -- they seem to focus more on the specialty foods that you might not be able to find at the regular supermarkets nearby. Of course, larger H Marts have expanded selections of everyday items, too.

This Maruichi looks like a very nice store, and the general interior design from the Gap actually works really well for them.

It looks like refrigerated items are against one side, opposite the produce department perhaps. I'm not totally sure what the layout is, since I haven't been here.

Frozen foods opposite that. The refrigeration on the perimeter looks brand new, but these cases are definitely secondhand from somewhere -- probably something like a drugstore or convenience store.

I really enjoyed Brookline, though, and there are some great restaurants in the area, so if I'm back in the Boston region I'll need to go back and visit this store and a few others.

In the meantime, though, tomorrow we'll be checking out one of two main supermarkets at Coolidge Corner!