A New York City sushi restaurant claims Wegmans stole its concept and trade secrets after it proposed a potential business partnership, only to open a similar sushi market inside an Astor Place store, Groceries said. This was revealed in a lawsuit against a major company.
Small business owner Yuji Haraguchi is suing Wegmans for allegedly violating a confidentiality and non-compete agreement after Wegmans opened Sakanya Fish Market in a Manhattan store just three blocks from Haraguchi’s Osakana. .
According to the lawsuit, Sakanya looks “eerily and confusingly similar” to a small East Village restaurant and fish market — using nearly the same font. Available at Food & Wine.
Haraguchi said Wegmans fish broker Culinary Collaboration began exploring the possibility of partnering with Osakana, signing an NDA and NCA in August 2023 and a letter of intent the following month.
“I have disclosed all of my trade secrets, practices, and financial information,” he wrote in a written statement. Change.org petition. “I invited them to my stores in the East Village and Midtown and showed them everything. They even attended our sushi classes.”
Then, in October, Haraguchi learned from a customer that Wegmans had opened a sushi counter and fish market inside its Astor Place store.
Customers thought Osakana had opened a store inside the supermarket and congratulated him.
“Then I found out that they were secretly opening an identical concept behind my back called ‘SAKanaya,'” Haraguchi said, adding that they also used the same font in their logo.
Osakana has established itself as “Japan’s fish market” in terms of marketing and brand language. “Sakanya” means fish market in Japanese.
Mr. Haraguchi also claimed that Wegmans used targeted advertising to Osakana customers, and that Mr. Haraguchi also received the ads.
“It kept showing up on my personal [Instagram] We create an account every day,” the restaurateur said.
Then on Nov. 20, exactly one month after Wegmans opened Sakanaya, Haraguchi said in the petition that he was told Wegmans was no longer interested in the partnership “without any logical explanation.” Stated.
“Then they retreated [of] transaction. They just disappeared,” he wrote.
Haraguchi, who is also the founder of Japanese restaurants Okonomi and Yuji Ramen, opened Osakana in 2016 and started his business with zero capital. He employs his 15 hard-working staff in Osakana, who make their living into small businesses.
“I want the public to know that this is what a multibillion-dollar corporation did to a small business with minority ownership, like mine,” he said.
Wegmans did not respond to a request for comment, but a company spokesperson told Food & Wine that the lawsuit allegations are “without merit.”
Haraguchi’s petition calling on Wegmans to suspend Sakanaya’s operations has garnered more than 4,000 signatures.
