Holy cow, Hokkaido!

People in the Tokyo area especially may have noticed a recent influx in Hokkaido food fairs over the past year. These events, held within department stores, give Hokkaido’s local food producers a chance to sell their wares in other markets around the country with a particular focus on the metropolis of Tokyo.

Sure, they’re a great chance to get some of the best food Japan has to offer, but why have there been so many?

▼ This guy was probably just looking for the train station and ended up in a Hokkaido food fair.

One’s first guess might be that they rake in the dough with sales, but that’s actually not true. Hokkaido is famous for its great food and great food is a common denominator that appeals to all types of customers, but it’s been said that these events often don’t even break even for the department stores that host them. While sales are good in general, they’re also offset by high operating costs, such as freezers and tanks of water to hold seafood as well as other specialized equipment.

▼ Some even have dining sections that can take up a lot of floor space.

The next logical reason would be that it’s a matter of prestige, and that’s certainly part of it. As the head of a department store, you certainly wouldn’t want to be the only one without a Hokkaido food fair and if you do have one, you would certainly want it to be the best despite the additional costs. So, attaching your department store with the popular Hokkaido name has its benefits even if it isn’t profitable.

But a more peculiar reason is the real impetus behind this recent rise in northern food festivals. It’s that customers who come to Hokkaido food fairs also tend to buy other things at the department store and not only that, but these customers also tend to buy higher-end goods than visitors for other events.

▼ I guess anyone willing to drop 2,190 yen ($14) on a wagyu bento is also less likely to shy away from luxury brands.

Despite the high popularity of Hokkaido food in general, it isn’t clear why other regional food fairs aren’t as potent as catalysts for unrelated consumerism. There’s just a certain X-factor about the “Hokkaido” brand that makes people want to buy stuff, regardless of what it is.

A plausible theory floated among online comments was that a Hokkaido food fair is especially good at drawing out people who would normally shop online for convenience, and since they’re already at a department store they just end up buying things there too.

Whether that’s true or not doesn’t change the fact that these food exhibitions are indirectly lucrative events for department stores and will likely continue to reappear in the year to come. In fact, all this talk about Hokkaido food fairs is really burning a hole in my pocket… I think I’ll buy a bottle of space sake!

Source: TBS News Dig, Hachima Kiko
Photos ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!