Kikkoman Corporation

Fresh Italian pasta and Southeast Asian specialties, ready-to-eat vegetable salads and gourmet lunch boxes, traditional Japanese sweets and European pastries, and a wine cellar with tasting room to help wash it all down..

Welcome to the basement of any major Japanese department store – where culinary dreams do come true, and the tough decision has to be made: Eat in or carry out?

For years, weary shoppers have stopped at department store basements to pick up a bite for dinner after a tough day of sorting through sales bins on the upper floors. The basements encompass a dizzying array of independent stores or stalls selling fresh vegetables, meats and fish, international foods and dry goods, pastries and specialty foods.

The big difference these days is that the department-store basement – depa-chika, as they’re known here – is now the breadwinner for these stores, rather than a sidelight. Japan’s department store sales have been in decline for several years; yet unexpectedly, depa-chika have triggered a turnaround. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, one of the nation’s biggest daily newspapers, store sales dropped by about 6.7 percent in the first half of fiscal 1998, but in 2001 they increased by 0.7 percent. The driving force behind this increase has been growth in depa-chika sales, which account for some 20 percent of stores’ total sales.

Depa-chika draw customers who, after visiting the food basement, tend to drift to the upper floors of the store – a turnabout from the recent past, when customers once trickled down to the basement from above, as an afterthought. Why the shift? Stores have enhanced quality and selection (the average number of products in a typical depa-chika totals about 30,000) while creating unique culinary “atmospheres” – one store features a market-style kitchen with working chefs on display, for example.

Depa-chika constantly change in an attempt to tantalize tastebuds and make shoppers hungry for more. Stores offer unique foods for a limited time – in early March, for example, fresh chirashizushi may be available at one stall for just a week or two, to be replaced without a blink by tempura or Chinese yum-cha. Depa-chika also establish an allure by serving up gourmet specialties not available at other department stores. The choices can be daunting, and for those who can’t wait, many stores even have compact “eat-in” corners where shoppers can consider their options and enjoy anything from hot curry to homemade cakes, fresh juice or tropical-fruit gelato.

At Tokyu Department Store Toyoko Store’s hugely successful depa-chika, “Tokyu Food Show,” each tenant is considered a “stage” designed to attract consumers – particularly harried workers looking for a quick lunch or take-home dinners. Some Food Show shops even have “advisors” who make meal suggestions, provide background on unusual foods, and help shoppers place gourmet foods like fresh liver paste or spicy Thai noodles into context within their home menus.

While depa-chika foods aren’t cheap, most shoppers seem happy to pay more for higher quality. When the newly renovated Food Show opened in April 2000, sales soared 150 percent over the previous year; now in its third year, sales continue to exceed expectations as consumers head downstairs to see what’s cooking.