I've been to Daiso stores in Australia, Canada, South Korea, and Japan, some that were so large that they took up four story buildings. I loved shopping at Daiso when I lived in Asia. Not only do the Daisos in Asia provide a wide variety of household items at a cheap price, it was fun to shop there. If you haven't been to Daiso stores in Asia, I recommend searching for some Google images so you have a better idea of what they look like. Simply put, they are awesome, and I have spent hours at some of the Daiso stores in Asia just to browse all of the products that are sold there.
When I heard that Daiso was opening its first store in Hawaii, I was stoked, and I felt the excitement among other people that I had spoken to about the planned opening. It was clear as day that Daiso would have the potential to be hugely popular in a place like Oahu. I had imagined a large, centrally located store, that could accommodate a lot of foot traffic. Unfortunately, Daiso gave us the exact opposite of what I was expecting, and visiting the store has been a huge pain since the first day it opened in mid-December.
My first visit to Daiso was with a co-worker on the day of its grand opening. The store is located in the Pearl City Shopping Center in the space formerly occupied by Sanki, which, by the way, carried more variety and better quality Japanese merchandise than this Daiso. The store is only around 5,000 sq. ft., absolutely too small to hold practically the entire island of Oahu that showed up to the store on the first day it opened. I don't know who at Daiso headquarters thought that Pearl City Shopping Center was a good place to open the first Daiso Hawaii, but I could have told him or her that this was a bad and poorly planned idea. Here is a tip: the next Daiso should be centrally located in Honolulu and at least 10,000 sq. ft. if not larger. The lines that continue a month later could have been avoided if a larger location had been chosen.
My co-worker and I waited in line for over an hour before we reached the entrance. Once inside, there was a line for the register wrapped around the entire store. Although I had seen some interesting products, the line was too long, and we left empty-handed because we did not want to have to wait another hour in line to purchase anything.
I thought that the lines would die down after a month, but Daiso is still implementing lines outside the store even when it is completely unnecessary. I went today and had to wait in line with no shade and under a scorching hot sun for approximately ten minutes before I was allowed inside, and the store wasn't even crowded, which makes me think that part of the reason Daiso continues to make people wait in line is to hype up the store and give an appearance that hordes of people visit each day. Sorry, Daiso, but the jig is up. I've spoken to several people who have given up on shopping here because of the line and lack of merchandise in stock. Just look at the photos of the empty shelves. I saw nothing that I wanted to buy and walked away once again empty-handed. This is the first Daiso I've ever seen with both a line to get in and so few products.
I won't be visiting this Daiso again until I get the word that the lines have stopped and there are more goods in stock. I'm just hoping that the next Daiso that opens in Hawaii will be much better and closer to my home in town. There is no excuse for this type of operation from a multinational corporation. The worst Daiso I've ever been to by far. Get it together, Daiso Hawaii. read more