SAXONBURG — Carol Bitter, owner of Friedman's Fresh Markets, hosted three special visitors Monday at the company's store here.

Noriaki Shintani, manager of the Itoham Foods advertising department and writer for the company's grocery store trade publication, and Kunihiro Irie, manager of Itoham's marketing section, along with translator Susumu Bruce Inoue of San Francisco toured the Butler County grocery store as part of a 12-store, nationwide tour.

Bitter said she met the Itoham representatives at a 2008 grocery conference in Japan, where she was a speaker.

Shintani said Monday his company's trade magazine allows him to tour the United States once a year to gather information about American supermarkets.

"We study the store's relationship with the community, plus marketing techniques," he said.

"One hundred years ago the supermarket was born in the United States, so they are our teachers," Shintani said. "We (he and Irie) write about what is new."

Bitter said the learning is mutual.

"We have a lot to learn about how Japanese markets work, with their perishable foods section just incredible, and as far as the prepared takeout foods, the Japanese were far ahead of us on that," Bitter said.

She also mentioned Japan's use of space in supermarkets, such as two-story markets that save space by building up instead of out.

Friedman's Fresh Markets will be featured in the January edition of the Itoham magazine.