Gone in 20 Minutes: Half-Off Sushi Draws Throngs to New York’s Japanese Markets

On a warm Thursday this summer, the line began to form around 7:45 p.m. inside a small shop in Manhattan. Customers s*** through the aisles, small bounties in hand. Soon, more than 50 people were packed into the store, waiting for the clock to strike 8.

They weren’t chasing the latest viral food craze, or a merch drop from an indie fashion brand.

They wanted sushi, and they wanted it for 50 percent off.

New Yorkers have gotten used to waiting in is-it-even-worth-it lines for meals and shelling out $20 for a salad or a smoothie. But at a proliferating blockortment of East Asian grocery chains selling fresh Japanese meals, city dwellers and visitors may have at last found a true bargain.

That is, if they’re willing to wait until 8 p.m. for half-off sushi, sashimi and onigiri.

“In New York City, it’s a great deal,” said Jodie Goldberg, 34, who had arrived at Ten Ichi Mart — which has locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens — around 7:40 p.m. and had several packaged rolls in her basket.

“In a world full of places that are trying to scam you, not Ten Ichi Mart after eight,” she added.

The scene inside the Ten Ichi Mart is repeated nightly at similar stores — Hashi Market, Sakura Market, Genkiya Mart and others — most nights of the week.

The crowd gathers. The cashier motions. The procession begins.

As the customers at the front check out, people in the back of the line, some spilling into the street, grab what remains from the refrigerated shelves. The products, fresh throughout the day, would find their fate at the bottom of a trash can should they not be sold before closing time.

To get the best sushi and nigiri, you have to get there early.

The sushi is not what you’d find at omakase counters where you might spend hundreds of dollars. But some of the stores prepare the sushi just for the evening crowd because it’s become so popular. Hungry New Yorkers spend $6 on a package of spicy crunchy salmon that would have cost $12 minutes before.

Sushi has transitioned from its 1980s mystique in America to becoming a staple. A sushi dinner from a restaurant may remain pricey — at the popular restaurant Sugarfish, where diners wait more than an hour to be seated, the cheapest meal costs $34.

Many American diners are willing to enjoy convenient, no-frills Japanese-inspired meals from all manner of grocers.

That’s called retail sushi, or “deli sushi.” Last year it was one of the fastest-growing products in supermarkets, according to the research firm Circana. In 2024, retail sushi was a $2.8 billion business, up 7 percent from 2023, according to Circana. In 2025, the Kroger supermarket chain said sales were up to a million rolls per day.

But not every store offers the discounts that attract throngs of customers.

Bill Chen, a manager of Ten Ichi Mart, which opened its first location in 2021, said that sushi was being tossed overnight before the store began the promotion. “It ended up getting popular,” he said. “We make sushi just for the promotion.”

The discount sales are hard to give up, he said. Mr. Chen said that the company breaks even on the meals but people placing drinks or snacks in their baskets while they wait help the business.

The dynamic is similar at Hashi Market, which will soon open its seventh outlet. The discount at some of its stores is only 30 percent.

“We were even thinking of not doing that promotion anymore because the margin is really thin,” said Ava Liu, the head of operations. “But people are looking for it. They wait to buy the sushi, so it’s hard for us to say we can’t.”

Most sushi is, after all, raw, so do customers need to rush home with their spicy tuna or tamago nigiri?

“The longer you hold the food, potentially the riskier it is,” said Donald Schaffner, chair of the department of food science at Rutgers University. “But if that sushi has been properly refrigerated, then it should be OK.”

At the back of the Ten Ichi Mart line, Paul Luyton, 20, a French tourist who seldom eats sushi back home, held a box of salmon avocado rolls. His partner, next to him in line, had told him about the discount.

“She told me this week we need to go to get sushi,” Mr. Luyton said. “She saw it on TikTok, the sushi, and it looked nice.”

Rachel Chen, 29, held a package of yellowtail-jalapeño and salmon sushi. She said that she takes advantage of the deal three times a month when she gets out of work later than usual.

If the line gets too long, she said, it’s not worth the wait.

By about 8:20 p.m. most nights, the only sign that a line of sushi gourmands had ever existed at many of the stores is a barren refrigerator.

It awaits the next day’s bounty, and a queue of deal-seeking New Yorkers eager to eat.

Kirsten Noyes contributed research.