REVscene Automotive Forum - Move Aside Daiso, MINISO and MUJI is Coming to Town

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Move Aside Daiso, MINISO and MUJI is Coming to Town

Spoiler!

Quote:

Chinese dollar store MINISO plans to open 500 stores in Canada

One of the world’s fastest growing retailers is planning a major penetration into the Canadian retail landscape by opening up to 500 stores within the next few years.

Chinese dollar store giant MINISO will be ramping up its expansion plans in Canada, according to Retail Insider. With both Chinese and Japanese co-founders, the company is known for selling Japanese-designed household and consumer goods, such as cosmetics, stationary, toys, and kitchenware.

Metro Vancouver locations

The company opened its first Canadian location in Vancouver at 1256 West Broadway earlier this year, and it plans to open three more locations in Metro Vancouver over the coming weeks and months.

Canada’s second MINISO will open at Tsawwassen Mills next week while additional locations at West Vancouver’s Park Royal shopping centre and 550 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver will open in July.

Expansion to Toronto and Montreal

After its first wave of expansion in Vancouver, MINISO will open locations in Toronto and Montreal and will continue its Canadian expansion at a rate of dozens of new stores each year, with as many as 50 stores over the coming 12 months. It is strategically choosing a franchise model to allow for its rapid growth.

With stores generally no larger than 2,000 square feet, MINISO stores are significantly smaller than those of Japanese dollar store Daiso, which opened its first and only Canadian location in Metro Vancouver’s Aberdeen Centre in 2003 – a two-level, 26,000-square-foot store.

If MINISO moves forward with its ambitious Canadian expansion plans, it could disrupt the nation’s ultra low-cost retailer market dominated by Dollarama, which announced its plans earlier this spring to grow from 1,100 stores to 1,700 stores over the next several years.

MINISO was founded in 2011 in Mainland China and has quickly grown to 1,800 locations across Asia. It has similar expansion plan for Australia, where it plans to open 300 stores over the next three years. Across the world, the chain aims to grow to 6,000 stores.

Chinese dollar store MINISO plans to open 500 stores in Canada | Daily Hive Toronto

For those that are not familiar with miniso
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniso

Spoiler!

Quote:

MUJI to open major stores at Robson Street and Metrotown in late 2017
Three years since entering the Canadian market in Toronto, Japanese clothing and household goods retailer MUJI says they will be opening two new stores in the Metro Vancouver region at the end of the year.

At a media event today in downtown Vancouver, MUJI Canada president Toru Akita told Daily Hive that the retailer will be opening two new large stores in the local market – a storefront location on Robson Street and another store at Metropolis at Metrotown shopping centre.

Both stores will open in late 2017 and be approximately 10,000 square feet, significantly larger than any of three stores open in Toronto which range between 5,000 to 6,000 square feet.

“When we opened our first store in Toronto, at that time nearly 80% of our customers already knew about MUJI and they were mainly Asian customers,” said Akita. “Now it is slightly changing with more people from outside Asian countries. Every time we open a store in Toronto, there are so many requests from people in Vancouver and Montreal.”

And they have listened, as MUJI’s first Canadian expansion outside of Toronto is set to be Vancouver.

The name MUJI, or known in full as Mujirushi Ryohin, originates from four Chinese characters and literally means ‘no brand’ and ‘good quality’.

The retailer already has a major presence across much of East Asia, with 400 stores within its home country of Japan and another 400 stores elsewhere, particularly in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

Having reached saturation in those markets, MUJI is now turning to North America for its next expansion given that the demand and interest has been proven. The Toronto stores were some of the company’s first testing grounds on the continent, and to date sales figures have been three times what they had first anticipated.

“We consider North America as the most important market to expand our business,” said Akita. “We see Canada as a very multicultural country, and we know that many customers are already in Canada and have been waiting for us for a very long time. We have been looking for some good location in Vancouver for a long time and are trying our best to open stores in the city.”

Akita adds that his company could potentially open more locations in the Metro Vancouver market if the first two stores perform well.

MUJI is occasionally compared with IKEA, but Akita says they have a very different brand concept that focuses on a wide variety of products such as garments, foods, furnitures, and stationary. They focus on making high-quality, originally designed products and retailing them at reasonable prices.

The opening of the Robson Street store will likely provide Robson Street west of Burrard Street with a much-needed foot traffic boost, in effect providing the retail strip with a major anchor. Vacancies and frequent changeovers have been an issue on Robson Street for a number of years, particularly one block further down.

“This landmark transaction underlines the continued vigor of Vancouver’s ‘Robson Street’ market,” said Martin Moriarty and Mario Negris with CBRE’s Urban Properties Group in a joint statement for Daily Hive.

“Long in the making, this deal will be a key contribution to Robson’s evolution and long-term vision. With MUJI joining other retail heavyweights Nike, Aritzia and Ladurée, we remain confident others will follow.”

In the meantime, until MUJI opens its first permanent stores in the region, fans can get a glimpse of what the retailer offers at its pop-up shop within the JAPANESE UNLAYERED exhibiton at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in downtown Vancouver. The pop-up shop will be open from 11 am to 7 pm, from Friday, January 27 to Sunday, January 29, then Monday to Friday through Tuesday, February 28.

UNIQLO, another renowned Japanese retailer, is expected to officially announce its first Metro Vancouver locations later this year.

MUJI to open major stores at Robson Street and Metrotown in late 2017 | Daily Hive Vancouver

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muji

Not going to lie, miniso quality isnt that good but they are pretty cheap, i have a few of their power banks and a shitload of their headphones

I kinda like them cuz most of things they sell are pretty in right now and price is hard to beat (iphone 6 case power bank 1000mah is $20 or so, thats a $100 product)

While muji on the other hand is one of those no brand companies that really promos personal style/uniqueness as they dont do ads and they let u do a lot of personalization on their products free of charge, which totally love

For those not familiar with MINISO, it's basically all the cheapest things you can find on alibaba, with packaging that has Japanese on it and stores that copy UNIQLO's aesthetics. TBH there are some useful things there. The useful stuff actually isn't any cheaper than in other stores, but it's all in one place so often it's a good place to look if you need something.

That's just in Hong Kong. In Canada it might end up being a really cool, useful cheap store to get basic goods. An alternative to high prices at places like Canadian Tire and Future Shop and Radio Shack

As for MUJI, look up the word "store" in the dictionary and there would be a picture of MUJI beside the definition. Literally the blandest, most boring store you could possibly fathom. Prices don't reflect the blandness though, they are quite high. The best way to describe MUJI would be to think of the colour beige.

Why the fuck do people keep falling head over balls over these Japanese and psuedo-Japanese dollar stores? I don't get it? Explain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 8842062)

As for MUJI, look up the word "store" in the dictionary and there would be a picture of MUJI beside the definition. Literally the blandest, most boring store you could possibly fathom. Prices don't reflect the blandness though, they are quite high. The best way to describe MUJI would be to think of the colour beige.

or in terms of food: "plain congee" or "dry toast"

because it's different............... at least for the natives here that don't get out much. Then there are those who feel more at home in those places. Those are my guesses.

In any case, who cares?

It's the minimalist aesthetic people are after.

#hipster

Quote:

Originally Posted by CivicBlues (Post 8842074)

Why the fuck do people keep falling head over balls over these Japanese and psuedo-Japanese dollar stores? I don't get it? Explain.

idk about the others, but uniqlo makes awesome quality clothing at low prices in a wide range of styles. and it's mostly simple basics, no ugly branding.

Only thing I really get from muji are their 0.5 gel pens. I used to like their note books as well but don't really need small ones these days.

Muji stationary is great, some of their lifestyle products like the humidifier is even better. minimalist at a cost.

Miniso is... a "luxury" daiso... you will find stuff like jugs and some travel bags and such, but aside from that, nothing special. Costs a bit more than Daiso for some products, but quick things like umbrellas or just useless disposable stuff is okay... theres an abundant of miniso locations in HK.

In my own opinion tho.. Miniso offers almost identical stuff to Muji, at a very reasonable price. ie.. those travel pillows... or travel/organizer bags for your suitcase.

As for uniqlo... its fast fashion.. its cheap, its decent enough and there's almost always something for everyone.

I probably have every single item that Uniqlo makes in their entire lineup by now. Every trip I make back to Asia finds me at a Uniqlo store, coming out with something. They're incredibly successful in creating well-priced basics with good quality.

Muji is a little overpriced for what they are, but they have a pretty loyal following as well and I also have a few pieces from them.

I had lived in Japan for 8 years (although this was a long time ago) so I swear by Japanese quality. I'm curious though as to where the products in these stores are made. Also nowadays, does it really offer anything better in terms of value compares to all the online stores out there? Or is there anything they offer that I can't find, let's say from AliExpress?

MiniSo is chinese

its chinarrrrrr products with a brand

I bought a seemingly nice eyeshade (soft, padded) at Miniso in taiwan prior to my flight back to Canada, piece of crap broke 30 mins into the flight when the elastic strap inside snapped rendering it completely useless.

I wouldn't buy from Miniso for sheer reason that they are a blatantly lying brand. Japanese and original? My a$$. And they have the guts to claim that they are original and others are copycat.

I love Uniqlo stuff. Great quality at a good price. Giordano used to be like that too before it started cheapening itself and skimp out on quality.

Miniso is horrible. I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft pole. It got nothing on Daiso.

Muji... we'd have to see its pricing for CDN market.
If it's priced like the US one, I don't think it's in the same sector as Daiso.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hehe (Post 8842128)

Muji is not a 100円 chain in Japan, Daiso and Muji don't compete. Muji already has stores in GTA right? I wonder how the pricing is

Minimal =/= inexpensive.

Miniso is cheap chinese crap, the first time I saw one I was so confused. I guess it's nice to have aliexpress the shop lol.

I truly don't understand how mediocre Daiso manages here, I don't get why the Tinseltown location is called YokoYaYa123. The market is there, the brand is there among Asian customers, I don't understand how Daiso Canada never managed to expand beyond their two stores.

Despite Daiso and Muji not competing in Japan, I have a feeling MUJI is going to eat Daiso's lunch. Daiso pricing here is awful, beyond common markup, enough to push it into Muji price territory for things like stationary, and we all know Muji quality is significantly higher.

This combined with Muji's aggressive expansion plans and better locations I just wont' see the need to visit Daiso anymore.

You had me at "major penetration"

Wow!!! Just look all the jobs Trudeau created. My head is about to spin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sid Vicious (Post 8842081)

idk about the others, but uniqlo makes awesome quality clothing at low prices in a wide range of styles. and it's mostly simple basics, no ugly branding.

Not really. Currently visiting Japan now and for the price is not that cheap. I can find items with better quality and lower price in local malls.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CivicBlues (Post 8842074)

Why the fuck do people keep falling head over balls over these Japanese and psuedo-Japanese dollar stores? I don't get it? Explain.

every other time I open a packaging of ebay/dollar store stuff I probably shorten my life by a day just from the terrible off-gassing

I want to say many Daiso stuff are better quality

they also have odd knick-knacks you cant find in dollar store...it's a few dollars more than ebay but sure beats waiting 3-4 months for your item

but making reservations to shop at a muji store earlier this year? only in vancouver....

Yes miniso is crap quality but they have variety, i have set of miniso Bluetooth headphones and i got them for $10

Draw back is crappy battery life, but what u pay is what u get and i only use it when im cooking or simple workouts which normally doesnt take 3 hours lol

Daiso on the other hand is quite expensive and some of the things they sell are quite out dated, they still have softbank headphones for flip phones for sales as well as screen protectors for psps lol (pretty out dated shit)

I can only imagine how bad those headphones must sound LUL

Quote:

The company opened its first Canadian location in Vancouver at 1256 West Broadway earlier this year

How come I don't know about this? There is a Miniso in Vancouver already?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 8842192)

I can only imagine how bad those headphones must sound LUL

You would be surprised. I bought a pair of $4 full size headphones that look like beats and they where not 100% terrible. It's pretty hard these days to make a speaker or headphone that's pure crap.

You guys make it sound like they'll all be instant success just because they have a following in Asia. How's those I.T brands from HK doing in Aberdeen mall BTW? :badpokerface: