AEON Minami-Gyotoku Store

AEON Minami-Gyotoku Store (イオン南行徳店) is a food-oriented AEON supermarket located in the SOCOLA Minami-Gyotoku shopping center in Minami-Gyotoku, Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The store sits about 700 meters southeast of Minami-Gyotoku Station on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, along Chiba Prefectural Route 50 (Minami-Gyotoku Ekimae-dori). The building has three above-ground floors and two basement levels, and is notable for using inclined auto-slopes rather than stepped escalators. The site's commercial history begins with the Daiei Minami-Gyotoku store, which opened on April 20, 2000, with initial sales projected at 10 billion yen. At the time, a D-Mart Minami-Gyotoku store operated by the same Daiei group had already opened across the prefectural road on September 1, 1987, and a connecting walkway over the road was opened together with the Daiei store to improve circulation and create synergy between the two. D-Mart closed on April 30, 2002, ending the two-year period in which shoppers could move between two Daiei-operated stores; the former D-Mart space later became a Yamada Denki Tec Land Minami-Gyotoku store, while the connecting walkway remains. On October 13, 2006, the first store of GU (then styled "g.u."), a new brand from Fast Retailing, the company behind Uniqlo, opened in the building. It closed on September 30, 2012, but reopened as part of the later SOCOLA Minami-Gyotoku renewal. On March 1, 2016, operation of the store was succeeded from Daiei to AEON Retail. Daiei operations ended on March 14, 2016, and after a two-day closure for renovation, the store reopened as AEON Minami-Gyotoku on March 17, 2016. In December 2019 it was reported that the store would temporarily close from the end of March 2020 and reopen in spring 2021 as a new store specializing in "food, beauty and health." Ahead of the renewal, tenants other than the food area closed in sequence, and the store finished trading as "AEON Minami-Gyotoku" on March 31, 2020. Ownership of the facility was transferred to Nomura Real Estate at that point. After a one-week closure, only the food hall reopened on April 8, 2020. The opening, originally planned for spring 2021, was delayed to autumn 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tenants began to be decided around July 2021, all tenants were announced on August 12, and the facility opened as "SOCOLA Minami-Gyotoku" on October 29, 2021, the first SOCOLA-branded commercial facility in Chiba Prefecture. After the SOCOLA renewal, AEON Minami-Gyotoku converted to a food-centered supermarket format and operates only on the basement first floor. Today the basement first floor houses the AEON food sales area and various specialty shops; the first floor includes Uniqlo, GU, ABC-MART and AEON Bike; and the second floor includes Daiso, Nishimatsuya, Megane Ichiba, Studio Alice, Shimamura Musical Instruments and a game center. The second floor also has a food court called "Food Terrace" with McDonald's and Baskin-Robbins, among others. The basement second floor, the third floor (rooftop) and the outdoor site at ground level are used for parking, and there are two bicycle parking areas. A connecting walkway on the second floor still links the building to the Yamada Denki store on the former D-Mart site across the prefectural road, allowing shoppers to move between them without being exposed to the weather.

The commercial site that became AEON Minami-Gyotoku Store opened on April 20, 2000 as the Daiei Minami-Gyotoku store, with initial sales projected at 10 billion yen. It was built by Konoike Construction, which handled both design and construction for the new building. Across Chiba Prefectural Route 50 to the southwest, a D-Mart Minami-Gyotoku store operated by the same Daiei group had opened on September 1, 1987. To improve shopper circulation and create mutual synergy, a connecting walkway over the prefectural road opened at the same time as the Daiei store. D-Mart closed on April 30, 2002, so the period in which customers could move between two Daiei-operated stores lasted only about two years. The former D-Mart site later became a Yamada Denki Tec Land Minami-Gyotoku store, and the connecting walkway was retained. On October 13, 2006, the building became the location of the first store of GU (then written "g.u."), a new brand from Fast Retailing, the company behind Uniqlo. That GU store closed on September 30, 2012, but it would reopen during the later SOCOLA Minami-Gyotoku renewal. On March 1, 2016, operation of the store was succeeded from Daiei to AEON Retail. Daiei operations ended on March 14, 2016, and after a two-day closure for renovation, the store reopened as AEON Minami-Gyotoku on March 17, 2016. On December 4, 2019, reporting by the Chiba Nippo newspaper revealed that the store would temporarily close from the end of March 2020 and reopen in spring 2021 as a new store specializing in "food, beauty and health." Ahead of the renewal, tenants other than the food sales area closed in sequence, and the store ended trading as "AEON Minami-Gyotoku" on March 31, 2020. At that point ownership of the facility was transferred to Nomura Real Estate. After a one-week closure, only the food hall reopened on April 8, 2020. The opening, originally planned for spring 2021, was pushed to autumn 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tenants began to be decided around July 2021, all tenants were announced on August 12, and the facility opened as "SOCOLA Minami-Gyotoku" on October 29, 2021. This was the first opening of a SOCOLA-branded commercial facility in Chiba Prefecture. After the SOCOLA renewal, AEON Minami-Gyotoku converted to a food-centered supermarket format and operates only on the basement first floor. In the Daiei and AEON GMS era, the basement first floor was the "food and daily necessities floor," the first floor was the "women's apparel floor," and the second floor was the "men's and children's apparel, stationery and toys floor," with a food court on the second floor as there is today. Parts of the basement second floor and third floor (rooftop), now parking, were once used as rental warehouses. Today the basement first floor houses the AEON food sales area and various specialty shops; the first floor includes Uniqlo, GU, ABC-MART and AEON Bike; and the second floor includes Daiso, Nishimatsuya, Megane Ichiba, Studio Alice, Shimamura Musical Instruments and a game center. The second floor also has a food court called "Food Terrace" with McDonald's and Baskin-Robbins, among others. The basement second floor, the third floor (rooftop) and the outdoor site at ground level are parking, and there are two bicycle parking areas, near the main entrance and around the west entrance. A connecting walkway on the second floor still links the building to the Yamada Denki store on the former D-Mart site across the prefectural road, allowing shoppers to move between them without being exposed to wind and rain. The store is about a seven-minute walk southeast from Minami-Gyotoku Station on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line. It is also served by Keisei Bus, Keisei Transit Bus and Tokyo Bay City Bus at the "Minami-Gyotoku 3-chome" stop, and can be reached by those operators' buses from Minami-Gyotoku Station as well as Shin-Urayasu, Ichikawa-Shiohama and Maihama stations on the JR Keiyo Line. The Shuto Expressway Bayshore Route Urayasu interchange is about 2.5 km to the northwest.

• D-Mart Minami-Gyotoku store, operated by the same Daiei group, opens across the prefectural road.

• Daiei Minami-Gyotoku store opens; a connecting walkway over the prefectural road opens at the same time.

• D-Mart Minami-Gyotoku store closes.

• The first GU (g.u.) store, from Fast Retailing, opens in the building.

• The GU store closes.

• Operation of the store is succeeded from Daiei to AEON Retail.

• Daiei operations end.

• Store reopens as AEON Minami-Gyotoku after a two-day renovation closure.

• Chiba Nippo reports the store will temporarily close from end-March 2020 and reopen in spring 2021 as a food, beauty and health specialty store.

• Store ends trading as AEON Minami-Gyotoku; ownership of the facility is transferred to Nomura Real Estate.

• Only the food hall reopens after a one-week closure.

• All tenants of the renewed facility are announced.

• Facility opens as SOCOLA Minami-Gyotoku, the first SOCOLA-branded commercial facility in Chiba Prefecture; AEON Minami-Gyotoku converts to a food-centered supermarket on the basement first floor.

A food-focused AEON supermarket anchoring the SOCOLA Minami-Gyotoku neighborhood shopping center, positioned around food, beauty and health.

• AEON food supermarket

• Uniqlo

• GU

• ABC-MART

• AEON Bike

• Daiso

• Nishimatsuya

• Megane Ichiba

• Studio Alice

• Shimamura Musical Instruments

• Food Terrace food court

1. 1SOCOLA（ソコラ）南行徳minami-gyotoku.socola-sc.jp
2. 2永旺南行德店 (Wikidata)wikidata.org
3. 3SOCOLA南行徳 (Wikipedia JA)ja.wikipedia.org