Daiso Memorial – Daiso Then and Now – | Daiso 50th Anniversary Website (2024)

Yano Shoten was a mobile vendor that used the storefronts of agricultural cooperatives and private stores to display its products. Since there was no roof, it would close if it rained. One day, the weather forecast called for rain; however, the weather changed. Hirotake Yano had planned to take a day off, but since his rented stall was only 30 minutes away from his house, he hurried out to open his business on time. He found women holding flyers in their hands waiting impatiently for the opening of the stall.
As he hurriedly unloaded the truck, people opened the cardboard boxes themselves to look for the items they wanted. “How much is this?” “How much is that?” Many people started to ask. Hirotake tried to look up the cost on the price list, but there were hundreds of items, and it was too difficult to find what they were asking for.
Not wanting to keep the customers waiting, Hirotake said “A hundred yen,” without thinking. The other customers were still waiting for the prices. “That’s a hundred yen, too.” The products were selling before the price tags had been put on them. Hirotake’s unintentional remark, “Everything for 100 yen,” marked the birth of the 100-yen shop that would eventually become the world-renowned Daiso.

The name “Daiso” reflects the desire to make the company “large (Dai)” and “create (So)” an annual turnover target of a hundred million yen.

In 1997, the company leased a large warehouse in Hiroshima with a floor space of approximately 3,300m² or approximately twice the size of its previous warehouse. The f*ckuyama warehouse was undoubtedly an epoch in the history of logistics in Japan. Everyone was surprised at the size of the warehouse. With its large capacity, the warehouse was expected to be able to stock as many goods as needed; however, even this extra-large warehouse was full within a week. From then on, the company began renting a series of large warehouses with a similar capacity in Hiroshima. At that time, there was no clear logistics plan in place, and the company was simply trying to store the goods as they arrived.
Since no thorough coordination of logistics and product planning took place, the number of products and warehouses for storing those products also kept growing as the number of stores increased. To improve this situation, the company introduced the Warehouse Management System (WMS), its first inventory management system, around the time it rented the f*ckuyama warehouse.
The WMS clarified the inventory status and enabled smarter order reception from each store. Until then, the company used to receive nearly 40 order forms per store by fax from almost 500 stores nationwide, but this changed to online orders through the WMS for operational efficiency. The f*ckuyama warehouse and other large warehouses served as warehouses specializing in “Kori shipping” where incoming goods are shipped in the original state without opening the packages.