Name: Typical Workday at a local Japanese Grocery Store
Uploaded: 2025-07-21T18:18:34.000Z
Duration: 16 min 31 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

This is a workday at a local Japanese supermarket.

The owners of this supermarket just behind me are going to be coming here shortly.

I can't wait for this one to get started.

So let's just wait for the owners to get here.

So this is Japan hard at work at a neighborhood supermarket aka grocery store known in Japan as a SUPA.

It's main French shop Oyama located in Kawaguchi Saitama Prefecture operated by the Oyama family since 1987.

Now with four generations all working together under the same roof to offer top quality goods at an unbeatable price as they hand select their fresh produce in the morning at Even grandma prepares their in-store sozai deli dishes while their great-grandchildren pitch in throughout the day.

That's the owner's daughter Michiyo-san and her granddaughter.

At 4.30 in the morning the two set out for the wholesale market as a daughter knows that this is key to securing the best produce available which is one way the shop can compete with other local grocers including mega supermarkets.

This is the Urawa wholesale market where Michiyo-san visits every other day to purchase their store's goods except for the vegetables which is handled by her father the owner of the shop at the Kawaguchi Central Wholesale Market.

Today being Saturday the shop offers special limited sales items where prices are extremely low so she must remain especially focused today when negotiating prices and looking for products and having her granddaughter with her to assist this morning gives her even more motivation to get the best deals.

In Japan's fiercely competitive supermarket industry with around 23,000 stores she's able to set her store apart by engaging with her customers daily to understand their needs and strives to offer her goods at the lowest prices knowing from her experience that even a single yen can sway the price conscious Japanese shopper.

It's part of her job to always be aware of upcoming holidays and events in order to predict what will sell and what won't.

For Michiyo-san the market holds a special place in her heart filled with warm memories.

As a child she would visit with her father.

People would give her juice and even pocket money while she played and rode the trolley inside the market.

Now she creates new and joyful memories with a younger generation.

First her kids and now her granddaughter.

Passing down the same sense of community and nostalgia that made the market so meaningful for her.

Before going back she makes a few more stops.

Although she officially started working at their store about 30 years ago, it was about seven years ago when her own mother suffered an injury which forced her to take on the responsibility of their wholesale purchasing and continuing on the relationships her mother built with all the vendors.

Now the family relies on her to make the correct purchasing decisions to keep their business profitable.

Oh it seems like she's negotiating the price for some of the store's featured sale items.

Fortunately the bargaining has a friendly tone since she's developed such a close Wow they're super nice.

Around 6 30 a.m she finally makes it back to their supermarket.

Before the store opens at 10 there's still plenty of work to be done.

All the products purchased this morning must be tagged with a price and placed on the sales floor.

Hey so do you think this job has made physically stronger?

Apparently despite having a full-time job during the week, he's dedicated himself to come here every Saturday to help his family.

He's already back from the vegetable market and busy restocking the sales floor.

He started going to the market with his father at 15, eventually taking it over and starting his very own supermarket.

Now at the age of 77 he continues on his family business.

After unloading, Michiyo-san quickly shifts her focus to prepare for deliveries, a crucial part of their business.

Supplying groceries to local nurseries, schools and also welfare facilities.

Balancing a delivery operation alongside managing the store is no easy feat, but the shoppers do whatever it takes to keep the business thriving so that they can provide for the younger generation.

So did you think you were gonna do this as a kid?

Running a grocery store requires a lot of manpower for restocking the floor, purchasing, providing customer service, cleaning, in addition to all the administrative tasks.

To stay profitable, a family store like this one in Japan usually cuts labor costs by relying heavily on their family members, which has its advantages and disadvantages.

But it's definitely a way to stay competitive with larger supermarket chains.

She's the wife of the owner and great-grandmother of the Oyama family.

She's in charge of making the deli shop items, also known as sozai in Japanese.

She left her own job to join the family business after getting married to the owner.

As mentioned earlier, she was handling purchasing for many years, working closely with her husband.

But after an injury, her dedication and resilience led her to start making handmade sozai, which quickly became one of the store's more popular items with many repeat customers.

Apparently she uses their family recipe passed down from her mother, who used to run a sushi restaurant.

Oh her great-granddaughter is snagging some of her sushi!

Michiyo-san's daughter-in-law and her kids are here!

With more hands on deck, the store prep seems to be moving at full speed now.

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Typical Workday at a local Japanese Grocery Store

apparently

thrive

grocery

experience