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    Ito-Yokado Hirosaki store closes; Voices of gratitude, applause, and Neputa Bayashi

    Ito-Yokado Hirosaki store closes; Voices of gratitude, applause, and Neputa Bayashi

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    Ito-Yokado Hirosaki store (Ekimae 3, Hirosaki City) closed on September 29th.

    The Ito-Yokado Hirosaki store, which opened in 1976, is a commercial facility directly connected to the bus terminal and has been popular with local residents, especially Hirosaki residents. Its closure, announced in February this year, attracted attention not only from local residents but also from across the country. After the closure, the business will be taken over by the OIC group.

    As the closing date approached, local residents were increasingly expressing their disappointment on social media, and the fast food restaurant Poppo in the basement food court was experiencing congestion, with signs posted announcing a six-hour wait for crepes, and waits of more than 30 minutes for French fries and takoyaki balls even on weekday lunchtime.

    Even on the closing day, a long line formed at "Poppo" from the morning, and at one point the line even extended to the second parking lot access corridor. On the rooftop on the sixth floor, a Neputa music performance was held three times by volunteers from the JR Neputa Fan Club. The club has a relationship with the Ito-Yokado Hirosaki store, where the manager and employees participate in the joint parade of the Hirosaki Neputa Festival, and the club's Neputa paintings have been on display at the entrance event space for many years.

    The stores closed at 7 p.m., an hour earlier than normal business hours. For safety reasons, there was no closing ceremony, but many people gathered along the road, some shouting "thank you" to the stores as the shutters quietly closed, and others waving at the stores. Some people played Neputa music to mark the closing, and the applause never stopped.

    The bus terminal, Studio Alice Lottery Chance Center on the first floor, NOVA & ITTO on the second floor, Ichijo ENT Clinic on the sixth floor, and York Culture Center on the seventh floor will remain open after September 30. The supermarket Shokusei♥♥ (Love Love) Lopia, which is scheduled to open in the basement food section, is scheduled to open after February next year, but Poppo, the Western-style pastry shop Siegfried in the basement, and Loft on the first floor all closed on the same day.

    Stores such as MUJI, Can Do, Baskin-Robbins, Lotteria, Kumazawa Bookstore, Nagao Chuka Soba, and Oven-baked Pancakes & Cafe Piyo will reopen for business on October 31st as tenant stores of the Oishi Group's CiiNA CiiNA.

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