What should I expect?
Is it like a Japanese dollar store?
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I worked with a Japanese national back about 15 years ago. Good guy, really funny and into food. When I brought in a rubbery coaster like pad because we had glass desks, he said that Daiso is actually good compared to the typical Japanese dollar stores. His actual words were most of the dollar stores are shitty…but Daiso is okay. He’s the kind of guy who would buy a crystal wine decanter…but he had a couple of kids.
I have to agree. The stuff is still cheap and still a lot of junk but a lot of useful and decently made stuff…especially for the price. I got a couple of ceramic paring knife for $1.50. (I think the lowest price went up.)
In NorCal Daiso seems to be in the same shopping centers as Trader Joe’s. So it’s convenient if you need something and there.
Some of the kitchen stuff is very good…like the paring knife. Some, not so much. Another friend, camping buddy said it’s great to get camping gear, kitchen stuff. I agree…if you lose it. No big deal.
As for what to expect…for the price just go in. They don’t always stock stuff, or they run out. Half the fun is finding stuff.
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Thanks!
That’s 2 bus rides for me so I want to make sure I’m going to enjoy it.
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A Daiso went in near me months ago, with absolutely no fanfare or publicity. I’ve been wondering what it is. I’ll check it out…
What do they carry that is worth buying?
As someone with nearly 20 years of life in Japan under my belt, I speak from experience in saying that Daiso can truly be hit or miss. There are a few Daiso stores here in Las Vegas and I try to find the items I felt were “hits” in Japan but sadly many of the items I loved aren’t sold here in the US (I don’t know why, though.)
This photo is something you should keep in mind when shopping there:
Items which are sold in Japan for ¥100 are $1.75 here. My mind has issues paying $1.75 considering that ¥100 is $0.64. There are VERY few items sold there which are high quality, but many are a good value. The food they have there is IMHO really overpriced. Kitchen gadgets are OK, but nothing fantastic. I’m SURE you’ll find some things there to your liking, though.
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Useful stuff I’ve bought at Daiso includes bottle brushes, including a couple with variously shaped silicone brushes for reaching hard-to-clean areas (good for your reusable water/coffee/etc/ bottles), small paper baking pans for baking stuff to give away, and small jars for spices. There are some reasonably priced nice ceramic bowls and plates (along with a lot of cheap-looking stuff).
It’s fairly easy to tell what’s crappy from look and feel, I think.
In the non-food prep/kitchen realm, it can be good for gift wrap.
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Agree, you can tell the crappy from the decent. After a while you ignore the stuff that’s not good.
Besides the paring knife, stuff that I’ve gotten and use almost daily include: silicone brushes, a silicone bottle brush with oil reservoir, a nice bamboo cutting board for $3.50 (I’ve bought two elsewhere before it), metal spatulas and dehumidifier. Dehumidifier costs like $6-7 bucks in a hardware store. Certain batteries like lithium coin are really cheap. The decent stuff tends to run out as others have figured it out as well.
Also, sales are final…unless it’s defective, so there’s that.
As they say, YMMV.
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I heard many good things about Daiso years ago before the first one opened close to us in San Diego - big disappointment. It is a glorified dollar store with a huge selection but very few actually good quality/useful items. We still go from time to time to see if something has changed now living in SF but it’s still the same things
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I would guess that 60% of the goods in a typical Daiso is crap, while about another 20% ranges from good to very good. The other 20% depends on what you think of Japanese snack foods and miscellaneous kitchenware and home goods. For instance, we bought a full set of rice bowls and kosara (soy sauce plates) for Spawn1 for either $1.25 or $1.50 per piece. We thought that was an excellent deal.
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