More Fun retailer attracts strains to its opening day; Hashi Market readies a web site in Central Square

Marc Levy The line outdoors More Fun because it opens Saturday in Cambridge’s Central Square.

Empty storefronts in Central Square are beginning to refill. On Saturday More Fun, an Asian notions retailer and cafe at 438 Massachusetts Ave., drew crowds for its opening. Meanwhile, a Japanese grocery emporium is hiring for a brand new retailer close by.

At More Fun’s opening, “hundreds of people lined up,” mentioned Michael Monestime, president of the Central Square Business Improvement District. “This is where you can go get your Labubus. You can go get stickers and notepads and all sorts of items like that. It’s also a soda bar. There are gaming machines inside. They’ve truly turned the space into a real place of joy and discovery.”

More Fun fills an area left vacant by The Station by Artifact Cider Project, a brewery taproom that closed in May 2023. It’s the corporate’s third retailer within the Boston space, after Chinatown and Newbury Street places in Boston.

Across the road at 580 Massachusetts Ave., the previous dwelling of the Expressions sneaker retailer, a vinyl signal pasted over the storefront introduced that the Hashi Market is “coming soon” and requested potential employees to ship in résumés. Hashi is a sprawling purveyor of primarily Japanese groceries and items. Hashi, a Brooklyn, New York-based grocery retailer chain, calls itself “North America’s first destination that blends a fresh food supermarket, curated minidepartment store and premium catering service all under one roof.”

Marc Levy A younger shopper considers her choices Saturday on the opening of More Fun in Central Square.

The Central Square retailer shall be its second in Massachusetts after one in Brookline. The firm’s different places are in New York, New Jersey and California.

Hashi Market will occupy the Expressions retailer and the basement house that had been dwelling to the Artist & Craftsman Supply retailer, which closed in January 2023 after virtually 20 years in enterprise. The mixed areas shall be virtually 15,000 sq. ft.

“It’s going to be humongous. I mean, think of those two spaces,” mentioned Monestime, who estimated it might take a yr of building and outfitting.

Central Square Bid An indication publicizes the approaching of a Hashi Market to Central Square.

Hashi Market will give Central Square a double dose of Asian grocers, since will probably be straight throughout the road from Korean grocer H Mart, at 581 Massachusetts Ave.

Hashi doesn’t exchange the abrupt lack of Daily Table, the sq.’s low-cost grocery retailer, in May. But Monestime mentioned he and others are working to handle that want as meals insecurity grows within the space.

Hashi Market will, nonetheless, be a boon for native employment and in conserving Central Square thriving. “The fact that they have signs in the window is such a great beacon of hope for that corner,” Monestime mentioned.