The Gashapon Bandai Official Shop is scheduled to open at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at 3420 S State St #9, inside South Salt Lake’s Chinatown district. The store is billed as Utah’s first official Gashapon shop.
Freebies and Firsts for Opening Day
Opening-day offers give early visitors and token buyers a reason to stop in: the first 100 customers will receive one free Gashapon token, and customers who buy 10 tokens that day will get an 11th free. ABC4 Utah reported that the South Salt Lake store is the state’s first official Gashapon shop.
The store is expected to have dozens of capsule machines, with products tied to anime, video games, movies, Western cartoons and other pop-culture properties, as well as some everyday items, according to ABC4’s report. Customers purchase tokens at the counter and use them in the machines; each dispenses a randomly selected item from the options shown, enclosed in a plastic capsule.
Where the Name — and the Habit — Comes From
Gashapon began in Japan in 1977, according to ABC4. The name combines “gasha,” an imitation of the sound of turning a machine’s handle, and “pon,” the sound of a capsule dropping into the tray, the outlet reported. Bandai’s official shop description captures the experience in the phrase “insert coins and turn the handle to start your journey.”
Bandai describes its Gashapon Bandai Official Shop as a dedicated store for capsule collectibles, with new products and toys arriving monthly. ABC4 reported that the chain has locations in 17 U.S. states. Other Bandai Namco Amusement America locations include San Francisco, San Diego, Riverside, Monterey Park and Beaverton, Oregon, according to the company’s locations page.
Earlier U.S. locations came in different formats
South Salt Lake is not the first U.S. Gashapon Bandai Official Shop: Gashapon US says its first opened in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, in February 2023. In a separate format, Bandai Namco Amusement America reported that three Gashapon Stands at Uwajimaya locations in Renton and Bellevue, Washington, and Beaverton, Oregon, were open by March 12, 2025.
For Utah collectors, the South Salt Lake opening brings the capsule-toy hobby within driving distance. The draw may be the familiar ritual of using a machine or the chance of finding a particular collectible—or getting an unexpected one.
