Rafu Staff Report

GARDENA — Long-time shoppers at Marukai in Gardena’s Pacific Square have been surprised by a notice saying that the supermarket will close early next month.

The notice, in English and Japanese, reads, “Marukai Pacific Market will be closing our doors on Aug. 2, 2015. Our sincere appreciation to our loyal customers for their patronage of the past 11 years. We look forward to seeing you at the Marukai Gardena and Torrance stores!”

Located at 1620 W. Redondo Beach Blvd., Marukai Pacific Market is known for its fresh produce and fish as well as a variety of products imported from Japan. It replaced Meiji Market (later Pacific Market), which opened along with other Japanese-themed stores at Pacific Square in the 1970s.

The supermarket includes a food court that has had Beard Papa, Bentoss, Mammoth Bakery, Nikuman-ya, Shin-Sen-Gumi and Sushi Boy as tenants.

Beard Papa, Mammoth Bakery, Nikuman-ya and Shinsengumi have announced that they will reopen on Friday, Sept. 4. Bentoss moved earlier this month to 21605 S. Western Ave., Unit C, Torrance. Sushi Boy has been closed for some time.

There has been speculation that the Pacific Square space will reopen as a Tokyo Central specialty market, as was the case with the Marukai stores in Costa Mesa and West Covina earlier this year, but Marukai Corporation has made no such announcement on its website or on Facebook.

A manager at Marukai Pacific Market said Friday that it was too early to make an announcement about what will happen to the space, but confirmed that it will be “some type of store.”

The Gardena store is at 1740 W. Artesia Blvd. and the Torrance store is at 3832 Sepulveda Blvd. Marukai also has stores at 123 Onizuka St. in Little Tokyo; 12121 W. Pico Blvd. in West Los Angeles; 8151 Balboa Ave. in San Diego; and 19750 Stevens Creek Rd. in Cupertino.

The Tokyo Central stores, which are also part of Marukai Corporation, are located at 1420 S. Azusa Ave. in West Covina and 2975 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa.