Opening of Hawaii’s first Daiso in Pearl City draws hundreds

Hundreds of people lined up throughout the day on Wednesday to shop at Hawaii’s first Daiso, one of at least a half-dozen planned for the islands.

“People in Hawaii love ‘retail-tainment’ and part of ‘retail-tainment’ is being the first in a new store and getting the first of everything,” said Honolulu retail analyst Stephany Sofos. “Living on an island, it’s kind of exciting with anything new, but particularly discount stores, because people are just so concerned about the value of their dollar.”

The 5,000-square-foot Japanese discount store at the Pearl City Shopping Center is the first of three or four planned on Oahu by HouseMart, the parent company of Ben Franklin Crafts and Ace Hardware, which has an exclusive licensing agreement to open Daiso stores in Hawaii.

Another Honolulu location is slated to open early next year, and at least one outlet on each of the major neighbor islands is also in the works, said Wayne Kamitaki, CEO of HouseMart. There is no set timetable for the build-out of all the stores, he said.

“We’ve been in business in Hawaii for 70 years and to expand our business to the Daiso brand is … really a dream come true. Never in our wildest imagination did we ever feel that we would be able to open Daiso Hawaii,” he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Droves of shoppers stood outside the Pearl City store, which has around 25 to 30 employees, for hours starting at 7:30 a.m. The store opened at 11 a.m. and there were still dozens in line at 4 p.m. The company sells everything from beauty products and household goods to Japanese snacks and stationery. While known as the “Japanese dollar store,” most Daiso products sell for $1.50.

Sandy Muroda of Mililani was excited to be among the first 100 people to shop at the state’s first Daiso.

“I’m sure a lot of Hawaii people will enjoy it because we lost all the dollar stores … so this is a nice replacement for it. I was surprised that it was still going to be $1.50. I thought it would be more for Hawaii,” she said. “Now that Daiso opened we’re going to have to find someplace else to go or something else to do in California.” There are nearly 60 Daiso locations in California.

Daiso has more than 3,200 stores in Japan and over 5,200 stores worldwide. The store, which creates 500 new products a month, said it is able to keep prices down through high-volume sales that are in the millions for a single product.

“You have an Asian population here, they’re familiar with this type of store and they know what they’re going to get for the price. Everybody loves dollar stores because you can just get so much stuff for a good price,” Sofos said. “In these economic times when people live paycheck to paycheck, it’s very much wanted and needed. You can get a bang for your buck.”