8 ms·
It really is one of the worst examples of a retailer anywhere. Shelf after shelf of semi-disposable, plastic tat, destined for landfill. Crap, processed food. K
by kochikame 8y ago
It really is one of the worst examples of a retailer anywhere. Shelf after shelf of semi-disposable, plastic tat, destined for landfill. Crap, processed food. Knock off cosmetics. Crowded, uncomfortable, unfriendly.
If this is the future, I don't want it.
- mc32 8y agoThese look like a more corporate version of your regular "百貨公司".
- megy 8y agoIt is a discount store, that is what they have.
- jeromegv 8y agoYes, and the point is that we are destroying the environment by selling stuff that has no real usefulness, this isn't really a great future.
- max_wen 8y agoI bought a suitcase there and used it to travel the world. I would definitely consider it "useful".
- Phillipharryt 8y agoThe problem isn't that they sell no useful items, they just sell so many items that even if a small percentage (it's not a small percentage) are destined for landfill then they're creating an astonishing amount of waste.
- bobthepanda 8y agoThe article mentions that they only buy returned overstock items from manufacturers at steep discounts. So this stuff was getting made anyways.
- glenneroo 8y agoNot quite true. From the article: > Almost half of its products are leftover goods that manufacturers couldn’t otherwise sell.
- spinach 8y agoCrowded and uncomfortable? I never really felt it was that bad. I lived in Hyogo-ken and would sometimes stop in at one on my way home from university. It was a fun place to be, a sensory overload perhaps though you get used to it pretty quickly. I usually just bought snacks there, a halloween costume... It's like an upgraded dollar store.
- princeb 8y agoit's not crowded for a typical japanese store and not crowded for a typical east asian megacity store. i've seen "supermarkets" that have just as much walking space. that's just the nature of the use of space in that part of the world. also i feel like almost every city will have a business like this that sells everything under one roof that does very very well. japan itself has a lot of these kind of businesses - daiso, tokyu, etc. places like donki just happen to be the most well known of them all.
- byproxy 8y ago>destined for landfill I've always referred to crap at discount stores as "future garbage." Sure, that's end-of-the-line for most things, but these discount stores peddle stuff with an exceptionally short useful life. Especially targeted towards kids, I feel! I guess it's easier for a parent to give in to a child's wants when the toy is only a buck.
- simonh 8y agoAs The Onion had it recently, “Child amused for 5 minutes by toy that will take 1,000 years to biodegrade”.
- xrd 8y agoThe greatest regret of all parents. They should have added "Parent feels guilty about giving in for 10,000 years."
- BurningFrog 8y agoThis is now considered Carbon Sequestration, and will help save the planet.
- raverbashing 8y agoUnless the carbon is collected from the air, it isn't
- benj111 8y agoI think he was been sarcastic.
- richardhod 8y agosarcasm is generally frowned upon here, for these reasons
- BurningFrog 8y ago
- hourislate 8y agoI agree, it makes the dollar store in the USA feel like a high end retailer. They sell absolute junk. Things you would find in the garbage that other stores might throw out.
- yoube 8y agoI guess it really depends on the actual location. The one I went to in Iwate was awesome, not multi-storey but a one-floor, jungle-like layout. Very good food section, bought a rug, travel neckpillow, and some crockery, I'm still using them now after months.
- benj111 8y ago"after months" I think you and the GP may have different definitions of semi disposable. I personally wouldn't class a few months as a counterpoint.
- aikinai 8y agoThey didn’t say they broke after months, just that they’re still working fine now, which happens to have been months. And if they’ve lasted months already, they’ll probably last just as long as anything from any other store.
- eru 8y agoOh, you are going to 'love' Daiso then. Everything 200 Yen. (Or 2 SGD where I live.)
- oasisbob 8y agoMmm Daiso. Guess it depends on what you're looking for. I love it because it has all sorts of useful things you can repurpose as a maker that you wouldn't find anywhere else locally. (Or at least not cheaply.) Large silicone mat for $1.50, Nice bamboo slab for $3, stainless steel rulers, fine-point dry erase markers, etc... There are some gems in there.
- lovemenot 8y agoActually it's 100 yen at Daiso in Japan, with very few exceptions.
- rwmj 8y ago108 surely, because of the tax? Daiso is a step up from Donki. I have a holder of Daiso pens and other stationary in front of me now which is decent quality and has lasted me a few years (including the holder!)
- lovemenot 8y agoRight. I agree. I feel Donki is not particularly cheap. It's just presented in a way that makes it appear that it would be.
- eru 8y agoWeird. Lots of the goods I can find in Singapore's Daiso seem to have something about 200 Yen printed on them.
- Danieru 8y agoIn Daiso anything without a price tag will be 100 yen plus consumption tax. Tags are only for things 200 yen or more. Thus you will only see tags saying 200, 300, or 500 yen.
- covercash 8y agoIt sounds a bit like Five Below here in America.
- hrktb 8y agoHow do you solve a shop being crowded (= successful basically) ? The uncomfortable and usually unsafe part is something that could be worked on, but otherwise it has tremendous value for single purpose products or appliance where required quality level is extremely low (e.g. takoyaki sets). It straightly goes against the romantic “buy it for life” idea, but I think asking people to care about every single stuff they buy is a tall order anyway.
- tokyodude 8y agois it just uncomfortable to your non-japanese sensabilities? lots of things are small and cramped in Japan. They rent 4.5 tatami apartments for example. Toilet stall doors often open in with zero room for a person between the door and toilet to get out (50% of the time I end up rubbing my pants along the toilet since there's no room ... yuck!)
- the_af 8y agoIt's the one store/retailer I didn't find interesting at all while visiting Japan. I have to confess that, in small doses (so as not to lose my sanity), I sort of enjoy the all-sorts-of-random-crap stores. I could spend unhealthy amounts of my time in those 100 Yen stores (or whatever they are called, I might be misremembering their names). But Don Quijote was just garish and uncomfortable. It was even difficult to walk the aisles. Everything about it screamed to me "get out of here fast!". I can't understand how it is successful. PS: while on the subject of these crap/budget stores, can someone from the US tell me if my hunch is right about the following? While visiting the US I discovered those Five Below stores (everything between $1 and $5) and I think I figured their trick: while the advertised price range is true, this doesn't mean what they sell is actually cheap! For example, I'm pretty sure I saw Hot Wheels cars at about $3 when everywhere else the same toys were near $1. Am I missing something?
- jstarfish 8y agoYes, you are correct. All retailers play the same game though, with products priced as loss leaders to get traffic in the door in the hopes you don't notice you're paying 1.5x as much for anything else you grab while there. The dollar stores take it to the next level (as you noticed). They thrive on the financial illiteracy of poor and rural demographics. Look at the price of paper towels. Only $1, right? But it's half the size of the $1 rolls at Walmart. Other stuff is just poor quality. $1 for a gallon of watered-down "bleach", versus $3 for the real deal elsewhere. God help you if you swing a dollar store hammer around. Those dollar safety glasses will be about as effective as taping an actual dollar across your eyes. Like a timeshare salesman or casino, they make you think you're winning to keep you coming back.
- xnyan 8y agoI would not be so casually disparaging of the intelligence of the poor. Sometimes you know its crap and more expensive in the long term but just don't have the funds to buy the better version. Poverty in the United States is an endless series of traps and gotchas to take advantage of people too weak to properly defend themselves.
- beetwenty 8y agoI've heard it compared to Walmart in the USA, and having visited both chains, I can see the resemblance, even if it's not obvious at the surface. Walmart's layouts are "big box", designed for automobile users who will carry their purchases to the parking lot. Donki's layouts are compact, for people who will take their purchases(most of them, anyway) onto public transit. Everything else about both stores is built around the premise of a broad selection of low-end goods at low prices. They are not beautiful, but I am fascinated by these chains as a phenomenon, nonetheless.
- leonroy 8y agoOne thing about Walmart is that whilst the prices are cheap, the quality is actually reasonable. They're certainly not as bad as say Flying Tiger or some of these purveyors of poorly crafted tat. Most t-shirts and bits and pieces which I've picked up at Walmart have been useful and lasted many years.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoThing about low-end goods is, often times they're plenty good enough for what you want them for.
- benbojangles 8y agoYou're describing Donki within dense tourist areas, further out they become still-mad-yet slightly more standard fare.
- chrisseaton 8y agoSounds like Ikea. People buying cheap nasty furniture to last three years when it should last a couple of lifetimes.
- 52-6F-62 8y agoEh. My parents have had their Billy bookshelves since they first came out. I’ve had Ikea stuff for over ten years easily. I still work off of a solid pine Ikea kitchen table I got for $60 CAD about 11 years ago(I bought two! My parents are using one). It’s my home desk. Some of it is worse than other stuff but I’ve never had the problem of having to junk it so soon as all that.
- harshreality 8y agoThey must never have moved them or had a weight imbalance leading to side-shear force. Wood dowel into particleboard construction is an abomination.
- 52-6F-62 8y agoThey've moved with them multiple times. 3 house moves in different cities/towns and many times throughout their current house! Though, to be fair, they used to laminate them in real wood. That said I've had some mac-tack $10 Ikea bookshelves (I bought 4!) for over 4 years and I've moved them once, taken them apart and put them back together multiple times with no problems . I store my entire mini library on those. All good. If you're careless with the connectors and screws then you're going to have a bad time. Definitely watch how much torque you put into any action. I also wouldn't treat them as a jungle gym. They won't compare to a dovetailed hardwood shelf mounted to studs, but they hold up alright with care.
- Luc 8y agoThey've sold >60 million Billy bookcases. Some wood dowels, but mainly cam locks, and a backboard nailed to the frame to provide rigidity.
- Phillipharryt 8y ago
- MisterTea 8y agoI live in NYC and this sounds exactly like what we call a '99 cent store'. They became super popular in the late 90's and 00's and sprang up everywhere. They are usually small mom and pop shops in local neighborhoods.
- dmitryminkovsky 8y agoYeah I’m thinking Jack’s on 32nd in particular and its affiliate locations.