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Comment by tkgally | Hacker News Reader

Daiso, the largest chain in Japan, designs a lot of their own products, and the shear variety of some product lines is one of the stores’ attractions. Twenty years ago, before going back to the U.S. from Japan for a family reunion, I bought fifty folding fans, each with a different Japanesey design, at Daiso as gifts. The relatives I handed them out to seemed delighted, and they cost me only a buck apiece.

Until I started working from home last year, I wore a suit and tie to my job in Tokyo. I have a collection of more than two hundred ties, each one different, all looking reasonably decent, bought for a hundred yen apiece at Daiso ten or twelve years ago.

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There are Daiso locations in the US (and I think many other countries now), at least in California. They aren't as good as the ones in Japan, and they have somewhat different items in one location than another. But they do have lots of interesting stuff, although most of it is $1.50 and up. The tool section is pretty neat as well as their stationary section.

As someone who’s spent time between California and Japan recently (2019-2020), I honestly think the differences between a Daiso in the US (Los Angeles) and a Daiso in Japan (central Tokyo) are very slight. I bought a lot of little gifts for people from Daiso when I was in Japan, and I’ve found that most of what I bought is also available in the stateside stores. Most of the everyday goods (household, serving ware, tools, cleaning, toys, stationery, etc.) are identical, with only the food and beverage section differing significantly. For instance, in Japan there is a limited stock of local brands by the register (somewhat marked up vs. the local combini). In California, it’s a very select handful of true imports, but most of it are brands who are producing a local US variant that Daiso doesn’t have to ship through customs. And interestingly, they stock some specialty Hawaiian drinks like POG that you can’t find easily in either California or Japan.

Hey that could be. So yeah I didn't mean to imply the goods were different, just less selection. I mostly go to the ones in Oceanside and Keary Mesa, and the last one I visited in Japan was in Fujisawa early 2019. I haven't been to the one on Sawtelle in a while but I do seem to remember it being bigger than the ones in San Diego.

Right, and it appears to be a completely different model than that presented in the article.

What’s interesting is that a significant fraction of the products at Daiso are made in Japan. Not by any means the majority, but a lot of the simple injection modeled products (containers), some of the ceramic plates and bowls, some of the chopsticks.

It’s pretty shocking to me that they can make these products domestically and sell them for ~$1. But I suspect for simple products the economics of making these items locally still makes sense, when compared with shipping a bulky object which is largely air.

i love daiso. the one in little tokyo (downtown LA) is actually spacious, relatively-speaking. apparently ikea loves them too, as i've seen a lot of gadgets that are staple items at daiso make it over the years into the ikea catalog. little kitchen items are what i notice the most, but other things too.

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