Value-priced Japanese variety retailer Daiso has expanded into Canada with its first corporate store that has opened in downtown Vancouver. The retailer is testing the waters in Canada prior to launching a larger national expansion.
The 4,700-square-foot downtown Vancouver store is located at 810 Granville Street, which was formerly occupied by an Indigo Spirit bookstore. A wide range of products from stationery to cosmetics to home goods is carried in the new store. Origami paper and other traditional Japanese items can be found as well — the product assortment is known to be of a high quality for the price point which has resulted in Daiso’s success with more than 5,000 stores globally.
Almost all of the product in the new Vancouver store is imported from Japan, while some items were bought either in Canada or the US. A Canadian Daiso website is in the works and a US ecommerce site launched in December of last year.
CBRE Vancouver’s Urban Retail Team negotiated the lease deal under the guidance of Mario Negris, Nolan Toigo, and Martin Moriarty.
JLL Canada represents Daiso in its further expansion into the Canadian market.
In 2003, the Fairchild Group opened a franchised Daiso store at the Aberdeen Centre in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond which operated for about 16 years. In August of 2019 Fairchild converted the 23,000-square-foot space to an Oomomo nameplate and the Vancouver-based Japanese-themed variety retailer continues with its own store expansion throughout Canada. Oomomo currently carries some Daiso products and the supply will be cut off as Daiso itself expands further in this country.
Daiso expanded into the United States in 2005 and the retailer now has over 80 stores there.
JLL is leading the Daiso expansion with a planned 10 stores in the Vancouver/Lower Mainland prior to a national expansion. Value shoppers in higher-income areas with a high Asian population will be initially targeted for stores that will include ‘daily needs’. Retail spaces between 5,000 and 7,000 square feet will be targeted initially with high foot traffic. Jack Voykin and Ryan McCarthy are points of contact at JLL for Daiso.
