Stores
There are 15 stores in the Kanto region (8 in Tokyo, 2 in both Yokohama and Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture, 1 in Saitama, 1 in Chiba, and 1 in Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture). [5]Outside of the Kanto region, Sapporo in Hokkaido, Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture and Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture in the Tohoku region, Niigata in Niigata Prefecture and Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture in the Chubu area (only in the Tokai area), the city of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, the city of Osaka in Osaka Prefecture in the Kinki area, and the city of Fukuoka in Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu all have each one store.[5] Expansion to all three of the large metropolitan areas and to all of the central regional metropolitan areas with the exception of Hiroshima was achieved with the opening of the store in Nagoya in 2015).
Each store is close to a train station, with the company embracing a "rail-side" strategy of being convenient and visible to potential customers traveling by train. Other companies in the industry such as Bic Camera and Yamada Denki under the LABI banner use the same strategy. In most cases, with notable exceptions such as Yodobashi Nagoya, Yodobashi Camera acquires land and constructs premises or purchases a site with a building for conversion. Yodobashi's inventory and distribution functions have been optimized using a large warehouse distribution network that began with YAC Kawasaki in Tonomachi (King Skyfront) in 2005. YAC is an acronym for "Yodobashi Assembly Center".
Yodobashi's first store in Shinjuku West has expanded into a complex of 12 pavilions: Multimedia North Building, South Building, East Building, Travel Building, Camera Building, an adult (erotic) software sales area, Print Building, Repair & Film Building, Mobile Phone Accessories Building, Game & Hobby Building, Gashapon (vending machine toys in capsules) and Multi-purpose Clock & Watch Building, occupying a significant area around Shinjuku Station West. The location of the first ever store is the current Multimedia East Building. Since the 1980s, surrounding buildings have been purchased for store expansion with repeated renovations to combine multiple buildings into a single entity. Differences in the heights of the floor surfaces remain as a reminder of the numerous buildings that have been combined to create the superstore. This is particularly noticeable in the Multimedia North Building with the largest area that was converted from a former office building and adjacent multi-story car park purchased in 1998. Initially, the first floor was partially open and the sales area went as far as the third floor, but the selling space was expanded to cover the entire building, now consisting of a basement floor and 8 floors above ground connected by an escalator. In addition, Yodobashi Camera opened Multimedia Shinjuku East at the east entrance to the Shinjuku Station as well.
All large stores opened since the launch of Multimedia Sendai in 1997 bear the "Multimedia" name. The majority of the existing stores were also remodeled to fit the Multimedia format, and as of March 2016 the only stores not bearing the "Multimedia" name were the Shinjuku West Flagship, Hachiōji and Chiba outlets.
In 1997 the company successfully bid 101 billion yen to purchase the JNR Osaka Railroad Administration site north of the Osaka Station from the Japanese National Railway Settlement Corporation (JNRSC). 150 billion yen was invested in the construction of Yodobashi Umeda that opened in November 2001. Yodobashi Umeda resembles a large shopping center with the core Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Umeda supplemented by specialty stores and restaurants. Multimedia Umeda has annual sales of more than 100 billion yen,[6] the highest sales of any retail outlet in Japan.
Subsequently, Yodobashi Camera opened a series of superstores close to train stations taking advantage of department store and rail network hubs. These include: building the multimedia store at the Hakata Station Shinkansen entrance; acquiring a freight depot site on the east side of Akihabara Station from the JNRSC for Multimedia Akiba (Yodobashi Akiba); a half-year full renovation of the Yokohama Mitsukoshi site to open Multimedia Yokohama (Yodobashi Yokohama), thus consolidating the Nishiguchi Gobangai (5th Avenue at the west entrance) operations; acquiring the north side Kichijōji Station site (previously the Tokyo branch of the Kintetsu Department Store) and remodelling the buildings to open Multimedia Kichijoji (Yodobashi Kichijoji).
5 November 2010 saw the opening of Multimedia Kyoto, purpose built on the site of the Kyoto branch of the Kintetsu Department Store (Platz Kintetsu Kyoto) in front of JR Kyōto Station's Karasuma Central Entrance. Yodobashi Akiba, Yodobashi Kichijoji, Yodobashi Yokohama, Kyoto Yodobashi and Yodobashi Hakata are large shopping centers that include multiple tenants in the same way as Yodobashi Umeda.
The Multimedia Nagoya Matsuzaka Store was opened on 29 October 2015,[7] covering floors 4 to 6 of the south building of the Matsuzakaya store in Nagoya.[8][9][10] There had been no store in the Tokai region up to that point. The Matsuzakaya store in Nagoya was expected to revitalize the area as there was no large electronics retailer in the Sakae area. The 7,200 m2 sales floor makes this is a medium-sized Yodobashi outlet (stores near train stations typically have a 20,000 m2 or more sales floor). There was initially a plan to open a store in front of Nagoya Station, but it was announced on 14 May 2015 that this had been canceled due to financial problems arising from delays with the Gate Tower Building opening (ultimately Bic Camera opened in the JR Gate Tower premises[11][12]).
List of all Yodobashi stores
Source:[5]
- Shinjuku Nishiguchi Honten (Shinjuku Station – West Exit)
- Multimedia Shinjuku Higashiguchi (Shinjuku Station – East Exit)
- Multimedia Akiba
- Multimedia Ueno
- Multimedia Kichijōji
- Hachiōji
- Multimedia Machida
- Multimedia Kinshichō
