Massive Japanese store carrying Daiso products opening in Toronto
If your ideal shopping excursion includes a whole lot of "OMG, wtf is this thing?" "Hahaha, this thing is hilarious" and "I need to buy this thing right now," you'd fare well in a Japanese dollar store.
Fortunately, you don't need to spend 14 hours on a plane to pick up kawaii school supplies and cheap, mind-blowing cosmetics.
In just over a month, the people of Toronto will have access to thousands upon thousands of unique, high-quality goods imported directly from Japan by way of Oomomo: A self-described "Authentic Japanese Variety Store" where almost everything costs around $3.
Based in Vancouver, Oomomo currently has just one store open in Canada, at West Edmonton Mall.
The brand has proven incredibly popular since opening there last summer, thanks to its wide selection of cool products, great customer service, and bright, friendly space (which includes a huge sakura tree.)
Several more stores are slated to launch across the country in the coming months, including two in the GTA — one of them with a planned opening date of December 8 near Don Mills and Lawrence
That store will be massive according to PR reps, with an estimated 13,000 square feet of floor space. It will be located near the Shops of Don Mills, though not in the complex itself.
Another Oomomo store is planned for Markham in the future.
There are, of course, many stores in Toronto that already sell imported Japanese products — everything from ceramics and stationary to kitchenware and snacks.
What sets Oomomo apart (aside from the fact that it will sell all of those things in the same location) is that it will carry Daiso, a popular "100-yen" lifestyle brand with over 2,400 stores in Japan alone.
Daiso products are incredibly popular across Asia, but the brand has only one official store in Canada right now. That store is in Richmond, B.C. As the exclusive supplier of Daiso products in Ontario, Oomomo Toronto store will boast tons of cool things from Daiso's current range of more than 70,000 products.
In fact, approximately 50 per cent of the store space at Oomomo Toronto is slated for Daiso products, according to a company rep.
"We aim to introduce our first-time customers to new products that might only be found in Japan, as well as explain much of our packaging to customers which are often times written in Japanese, rather than English," reads a website for the store's current location in Edmonton.
"With new stock continually coming in every week exclusively from Japan, customers can truly expect to find products here that they can’t find anywhere else," it continues.
"The trendy items sold in the variety of shops in Japan can now all be found at Oomomo."
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