Carytown’s Tokyo Market to relocate up the street

Bochie Thompson outside Tokyo Market’s future home. (Mike Platania photo)

A mainstay Carytown retailer is moving elsewhere within the neighborhood. 

Tokyo Market, which sells Japanese groceries, spices, sauces and other items, is preparing to leave its longtime home at 2820 W. Cary St. and relocate a couple blocks west to 3030 W. Cary St.

Though its current address is on Cary Street, Tokyo Market’s storefront faces Colonial Avenue and is located just past the Byrd Theatre on the eastern end of Carytown. Store manager Bochie Thompson said the move will give it both direct exposure to Carytown’s main thoroughfare, as well as more space as it jumps from 1,400 to 2,500 square feet. 

Chong Park first opened Tokyo Market in 2006, and over the years has gradually expanded its offerings, Thompson said.

“What we offer now is so much more than what it used to be,” Thompson said. “It is packed floor to ceiling. About every inch of the store is full.”

Some of the market’s more popular items include Japanese drinks, candy and chips, while it also stocks a wide array of ramen, Japanese cooking ingredients, noodles and more. It also has frozen food and ready-to-eat sashimi in a refrigerated section, as well as Japanese tea sets, mugs, bowls and other kitchenware. 

In 2021, Tokyo Market expanded to take over an adjacent space fronting Colonial Avenue, and as the shop’s grown, so has its popularity. Thompson said they’ve seen folks come in looking for Japanese ingredients, such as furikake rice seasoning, to use in non-Japanese dishes. 

“People were using (furikake) for their Hanover tomatoes. So we get a lot of crossover like that, where people are looking for Japanese cooking items to use within their own experiments,” Thompson said. 

When it came to look for a new home, Thompson said the plan was always to stay in Carytown. Tokyo Market wound up leasing Ruby Boutique’s former home, a 2,500-square-foot space at the corner of Cary and Belmont. 

“Our identity is in Carytown and Chong’s wanted to move for a number of years now,” Thompson said. “Moving up there is hopefully going to increase our foot traffic and people will know exactly where we’re at.”

The shop’s move is underway and it plans to open in the new spot on Aug. 1, exactly 18 years after Park first opened the market in Richmond. 

Another Asian market, albeit much larger, recently opened in the Richmond area. Lotte Plaza Market, a Maryland-based grocer, opened in May in the former Stein Mart storefront at 7801 W. Broad St.