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The story
A thread where regulars recommend items to a poster who’s about to visit the discount supermarket “Trial” for the first time. One after another, they bring up the chain’s signature katsudon (pork cutlet rice bowl), egg sandwiches, frozen seared chicken tataki, and Seiyu’s private-label retort curry, though many also pointed out that the katsudon’s quality is hit-or-miss depending on the store. Along the way, posters also share some industry backstory that’s not widely known to shoppers — like how Seiyu went from Walmart to an investment fund before being bought by Trial, and how Seiyu’s old private label “Minasama no Osumitsuki” (Everyone’s Seal of Approval) will keep being sold alongside “Oishiku Nare!” (Become Delicious!) for the time being.
What people said
You gotta buy that one for sure 🥺
Is it famous for being insanely good, or just good value for money? 🥺
Good balance of price and taste
They sell it at Sugi Pharmacy too (a Japanese drugstore chain that also sells food), so I eat it a lot 🥺
Not really that tasty, but it's decent for the price
These private-label names crack me up 🥹
Sounds like they're going to keep selling both
Since the Seiyu one has history and brand value too
Seiyu carries it too, but I pay the extra 100 yen for the Seiyu one
More volume, thicker meat, plus Trial's is on the sweet side
Never even seen the Seiyu one 🥺
I like it sweet so it's fine by me 😋
Apparently the carts are all digitized with ICT, and if you register a prepaid card you can check out right on the spot — lots of stuff like that streamlined 🥺
Not that I really know, though 🥺
But if it's a store that moved into an old building as-is, it's filthy, so don't expect much
The properly newly-built stores are packed with the latest tech, I want to check one out sometime
It's a new build 🥺
When it opened people were saying "a futuristic store got built!" 🥺
I'm into sci-fi so I'd love that kind of thing, but it's just far enough away that I haven't been able to go 🥺
Trial's version varies a lot in quality
Maybe they're rushing to make them, but some have tons of egg and others have almost none
So you need a trained eye for it 😯 I'll be careful
That stuff is way too good — not sure if it's just popular, but it's sold out a lot
Never had rare-seared chicken before 🥺
If they've got it in stock I'll give it a try 🥺
Sounds nice if it's sold nearby 🥺
Well, I'll go check the place out and grab some while I'm at it 🥺
The seasoning's sweet, so adding some shichimi (Japanese seven-spice chili pepper) might be good
Super convenient
The hours are long too 🥺
Would be handy if there was one nearby 🥺
Trial's private-label cat food cans are great
https://www.trial-net.co.jp/mag/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/img1-1080×720.jpg
The ones made before the "made this evening" sticker batch are the leftovers piling up
It's been open a while now so it's probably settled down 🥺
Well, just go check it out 🥺
Times are changing
So it's like a successor to Seiyu or something? 🥺
Trial bought out Seiyu
Seiyu got bought out
Trial's base is Kyushu, while Seiyu was mainly a Kanto thing
They're swapping the signs over to something like "Trial Seiyu" and renovating
Sounds like it's turning into a store that's different from both the original Trial and Seiyu
They're also rolling out a smaller format called "Trial GO" that uses Seiyu's kitchens to make deli food to sell
Bought Trial's bread but it was dry and crumbly and tasted bad
Basically worse than Seiyu's private label
Surprised there's something even below Seiyu
I'm pretty picky about bread 🥺
Guess I'll take a look before deciding on this one 🥺
Trial does a better job cooking the cheap meat
Guess quite a few places make their own katsudon 🥺
Making thin-cut meat taste good is genuinely hard, so respect 🥺
The massaman curry especially is a must-try
I was just looking for retort curry 😀
And gaeng massaman is one of my favorites 😀😀😀
Oh, so it was them that got bought out 😯
I didn't know much about Seiyu but I figured it was one of the old-guard chains, so that's surprising
The order was Walmart → investment fund → Trial
I'm in the Chubu region, no wonder I didn't know either of them 🥺
Guess the post-buyout strategy shift is why they've started showing up here too 🥺
So it's a rival to La Mu (another discount supermarket chain)
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Seiyu was long known as being “under the umbrella of Walmart USA,” but it was later sold to an investment fund, and in 2023 Trial Holdings (a discount supermarket chain based in Kyushu) acquired shares, with the business integration now underway. The reason store signage is changing from “Seiyu” to “Trial” or “Trial Seiyu” is this buyout, and a smaller format called “Trial GO,” which uses Seiyu’s kitchen facilities, is also being rolled out. Opinion in the thread was split on the signature katsudon, with some saying “it’s just cheap, the taste is average” and others saying “it’s better than Seiyu’s,” suggesting quality varies by store. There was also word that Seiyu’s affiliated former private-label lines, “Minasama no Osumitsuki” (Everyone’s Seal of Approval) and “Oishiku Nare!” (Become Delicious!), won’t be merged and will continue to be sold side by side for now — both being treated as familiar Seiyu assets, which is easy to misunderstand without knowing the background of the buyout.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “First time going to Trial, got any recommendations? 🥺“
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