Japan’s Donki is coming to town on hopes that Singaporeans, keen on a bargain, would embrace the discount chain. Japan’s Don Quijote, which is already popular among Asian tourists, has opened its first store in Asia outside of Japan in Singapore under the name "Don Don Donki."
The store covers an area of 1,397 sq. meters in a shopping mall along the city state’s biggest shopping belt, Orchard Road. It will sell about 30,000 items, specializing in products that are either made or designed in Japan or by Japanese companies, from fresh food items such as wagyu beef and tuna sashimi, to bags to toiletries. Following the traditional Don Quijote model, it will open around the clock.
Reflecting the popularity of all things Japanese, the number of stores that sell Japanese products in Singapore is increasing. However, "I was appalled by the price difference of Japanese products between Japan and Singapore. As a king of discount, I was not able to overlook this situation," Takao Yasuda, founding chairman of Don Quijote Holdings, told reporters at the pre-opening event on Wednesday.
He said that prices at Donki Singapore will be "10 to 20% higher than that of Donki Japan because of shipping costs and so on, but it [will be] much cheaper than other places in Singapore."
