‘It’s Like A Jungle Treasure Hunt’
When Daiei left town, another Japanese retailer took over, and now Don Quijote is planning a grand opening on Friday
By Chad Pata
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS |
Del.icio.us
Koji Suganuma and DonPen, here in the
meat department, offers shelves stacked
high with new goods
It started with something subtle, just one line on a receipt. The name “Daiei” replaced by “Don Quijote.”
No fanfare, no dramatic farewell, just a 34-year-old, four-store love affair with Hawaii ended with hardly a whimper in February.
But not without a new suitor, the oddly named Don Quijote with its ubiquitous stocky little penguin named DonPen and its jam-packed shelves.
They officially begin their affair with Hawaii this Friday as they unveil the old Holiday Mart’s new look with a celebration at the Kaheka store that will feature local grinds and everyone’s favorite local Japanese boy Jake Shimabukuro.
The new store, however, won’t be turning its back on the tradition that Daiei’s loyal customers have come to know and trust.
“Even though we are taking over, everything will be the same,” says Koji Suganuma, the president of the four local Don Quijote stores. “We will still have all the food and groceries, but we will also be bringing in new designer lines of watches and jewelry.”
Donki, as Don Quijote is known in Japan, is no rival of Daiei with its thousands of stores. They have only 127 in the entire chain, but they do bring a uniqueness that may wow a lot of locals and tourists alike.
The chain began in 1989 and has grown mostly in the Tokyo area, where there are 36 stores alone. Sales topped $2 billion last year and they stand to top that this year with expansion of 20 more stores.
They have several different formats for the stores from the ABC-like Picasso stores to mall anchors similar to Macy’s, making it an easy assimilation to take over the unique niche that Daiei filled here in the Islands.
In preparing to make the jump to the American market they used what they learned from the Roppongi store in Tokyo where the customer base is 80 percent foreign and 40 percent American. This knowledge will be unveiled on Friday for the true test with local customers.
Their shelves are tall and packed with disparate items leading customers to feel they are on a “jungle treasure hunt” as they put it, or confusing consumer chaos as someone who is used to shopping in a normal retail store might think.
They call the method “compression displays” and it is built for browsing, to let customers wander around and find what they want. Customers in Japan enjoy the search and Suganuma is hoping the people of Hawaii do as well.
Their Japanese stores are open all night (as are the Kaheka and Waipahu locations) and they aim to be an amusing place for customers to browse. They have even gone so far for the entertainment of customers as to build an oval Ferris wheel that is attached to their Dotombori store in Tokyo, but don’t count on one of those here any time soon.
Instead local customers will be amused by their signage, some of it intentional and some of it just by nature of the language barrier.
They use all handwritten signs on Day-Glo paper that they feel are more comforting and personal to the customer.
“I want you to know that the signs are a love letter between the people who selected the product and the customer,” says Suganuma through a translator. “The product has no voice so we gave it a voice.”
The messages the voice gives can be rather humorous in their literal translations.
Signs that read “Good products sell well” and “The presence colors to relax you” come off a bit silly in English and the frequent misspellings may keep children entertained looking for gaffs as their parents shop.
Suganuma assures us that these will be rectified but he has much on his plate as he helps with the renovations. A working class guy, his roots in the business start with clerking, employees see him on the floor every morning in not just his aloha shirts, but also with a tool belt and work gloves.
Since his arrival in May, it has been 16 hour days in the store, prompting him to have a different view of Hawaii then on his previous visits on vacation.
“When I came here to play I was very excited,” says Suganuma, who learned he had the job two days before he had to fly out. “Coming here to work, that was another matter entirely.”
And work he has. For those who frequent the Kaheka store, you have been shielded for months from the retail areas by oversized black Hefty bags. It is in these areas that his hard work is most evident.
What were once stark shelves illuminated by overhead fluorescent lighting has been turned into technicolor maze of every kind of goods imaginable.
A hands-on manager, Koji Suganuma helps Makoto
Hanawa stock merchandise
The women’s section has everything a girl could want without any of the bad lighting. Instead, they have turned off the overheads and opted for direct lighting on the shelves themselves.
“By using direct lighting it brings out the value and appeal of the products,” says Suganuma, who has been with Don Quijote for eight years.
Also unique to a discount retail store, they have an in-store manicure/pedicure center that will apply the products you buy at Don Quijote’s for free.
Men, apparently, respond not to soft lighting and nice nails but rather to a comfortable place to sit. In the midst of the chaos of touchlamps, speakers and electronic dart boards there is a haven: a staggered panel of flat screen TVs fronted by a leather sofa on which to enjoy them. If the men can find their way through the forest of merchandise, they will find peace here.
The food sections will remain unchanged, except for the oddly spelled Day Glo signs, but they hope to bring in new Japanese foods that residents have not had the chance to try before.
“First we are going to be offering new foods so the ladies that are shopping here, maybe they are tired of the old things, we are going to suggest new exciting things,” says Suganuma.
Those things will include a new organic food section and in the ready-to-eat okazuyas there will be calorie breakdowns to help people make healthy choices.
They are also reaching out to the community by feature local chefs each week for in-store tastings.
“We want to raise the consciousness of the ono local grinds,” says Suganuma. “A lot of
Page 1 of 2 pages for this story 1 2 >
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
