New York sushi resto claims Wegmans stole its concept: Lawsuit

Article content

A sushi restaurant in New York City claims it got the raw end of the deal and is suing Wegmans.

The lawsuit against the grocery titan alleges Wegmans stole the restaurant’s concept and trade secrets after proposing a potential business partnership — only to open a similar sushi market inside its Astor Place location, the New York Post reported.

Small business owner Yuji Haraguchi is suing Wegmans for allegedly breaching non-disclosure and non-compete agreements after the chain opened its Sakanya fish market inside its Manhattan location three blocks away from Haraguchi’s Osakana.

Sakanya bears an “uncanny and confusingly similar resemblance” to the small East Village restaurant and fish market, including using the same font, according to the lawsuit obtained by Food & Wine.

Haragushi said Wegman’s fish broker, Culinary Collaboration, started working with Osakana on a potential partnership and signed the NDA and NCA in August 2023 before signing a letter of intent the next month.

“I disclosed all of my trade secrets, practices, and all the financial information,” he wrote in a Change.org petition. “I invited them to come into my store in the East Village and Midtown locations and showed them everything. They even took our sushi class.”

In October, Haraguchi learned from a customer that Wegmans opened a sushi count and fish market inside its Astor Place store.

“That’s how I found out that they secretly opened the identical concept called ‘SAKANAYA’ behind my back,” Haraguchi said, adding they even used the same font for their logo.

Osakana also established itself as a “Japanese fish market” in marketing and brand language. “Sakanya” means fish market in Japanese.

Wegmans used targeted ads for Osakana customers and the ads reached him as well, Haraguchi also claimed.

“It kept appearing on my personal (Instagram) account every single day,” the restaurateur said.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

On Nov. 20, one month after Wegmans opened Sakanaya, Haraguchi was told Wegmans was no longer interested in a business partnership “without any logical explanation,” he said in the petition.

“That’s how they backed out (of) the deal. They just disappeared,” he wrote.

Haraguchi opened Osakana in 2016 and said he began his businesses from scratch with no money. He employs 15 staffers at Osakana who rely on the small business to make a living.

Wegmans did not return a request for comment, the Post said, but a spokesperson for the company told Food & Wine that the allegations in the lawsuit are “without merit.”