Daiso: on ￥100 shopping sprees
Daiso Daiso.
That merry little jingle (if it can be classified as such) is one of the many things I think of when I plan my weekly grocery/get-stuff-for-the-house trip. Without fail, at least three to four times a month, I’m at Daiso for something. Half the time, I don’t know what that something is until I’m there, but I usually end up with more things than I initially wanted or needed.
It’s just an adult thing. Maybe it’s a symptom of growing up where I and my friends did. After all, when Wal-Mart or even the dollar store is a good 30 minute drive away, better stock up something you might need later on the perhaps incorrect memory of just how much shampoo is left in the bottle. Maybe I’m getting more like my mother and father who would make a trip to the store for one thing, but end up getting at least three or four other things the house might need a week or two from now. Better than running out and not having an extra jug of laundry detergent, spare tube of toothpaste, or another bar of soap around.
Passing by the soap section, I reckon I’ll grab a bar of the cheap bar soap I like.
Guess I’ll wander to the stationary section. Sure could stock up on some stickers for my students. Better get 2 or 3 packs. Huh…today at school I sure could have used a towel. Better get a towel to stuff into my car. Might as well get two. One for the car. One for the backpack. Won’t hurt anything. Got an awful lot of stuff to carry. Oh, I’m walking by the buckets. I need a second bucket (FOR SOME YET TO BE DISCOVERED REASON), so might as well put all this stuff I have into one and carry it around until I buy it. Good God, I’m smart. Oh. I got half a bottle of laundry detergent. I’ll just grab a refill bag so I have it ready for next month when the bottle’s empty.
A quick in and out trip for one or two items exploded into a fifteen minute micro-splurge on necessities. The above paragraph omitted the pretty-handy 3-in-1 colored pens and one other thing I can’t remember immediately offhand. And all of it for the price of around 1,800 yen. Not a bad little haul to keep myself going for another little while. As Dogen the YouTuber (or was it Abroad in Japan…I can’t really remember) once quipped “a person can live out of a Daiso if they try hard enough.” A person probably shouldn’t do that, but it could be done. All I know is that my little Southern heart loves to tithe on the holy altar at the Daiso cash register and the ever pleasant, ever harried Daiso employee will take my money on the 100 yen store god’s behalf. My shopping complete, I walk to my car, put my things in the passenger side floorboard (which I still instinctively take for the driver’s side at least once a week) and return to my apartment on the fourth floor in a little inaka town where I will stow away the laundry detergent, the toothpaste, and the soap for a future time.
Arigato, Daiso Daiso-san.
