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Business as usual at Carmen Safeway
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Posted on Feb 17 2005
It’s business as usual for Carmen Safeway supermarket, the former Meitetsu supermarket that was known for retailing Japanese grocery and fresh items.
Following the recent supermarket takeover of Carmen Safeway Enterprises Inc. from Meitetsu Corp., the new management disclosed that business have been doing well, as the supermarket continues to carry the products that made the former Meitetsu popular on-island.
“We only changed the faces and the owner,” said Carmen Safeway general manager Eli Maravilla. “I want to assure customers that we’ll offer the same products.”
Maravilla also said that Carmen Safeway would be adding new product lines on top of the supermarket’s usual merchandise.
Among the renowned Japanese brands at the supermarket are Kikoman soy sauce, Asahi beer and Gekkeikan saki [rice wine]. The supermarket also retails fresh Japanese vegetables and fish such as Sanma and Saba that are flown directly from Japan.
Carmen Safeway also carries merchandise from the United States and the Philippines. It brings in meat products from Austalia and the United States and boasts of being the only local retailer with meat-cutting facility that has passed standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “People are assured that they are getting quality meat,” Maravilla said.
Carmen Safeway Enterprises Inc. recently purchased the assets of Meitetsu after the Nagoya-based Japanese firm decided to pull out its businesses on Saipan.
The supermarket, together with its warehouse and offices, stands on a 3,000-sqm land on Beach Road, Chalan Kanoa. It began operations as early as 1976 as Carmen Safeway Meitetsu, a joint venture between the two companies, until 1992.
Carmen Safeway decided to sell its interests over the supermarket to the Japanese firm and concentrated on operating the Carmen’s Baby News store adjacent to Meitetsu. Sometime last month, however, Meitetsu sold its interests over the supermarket to Carmen Safeway.
