HONG KONG--The Japanese discount chain store Don Quijote is enjoying a major sales surge in this Asian market even amid the novel coronavirus pandemic thanks to its offerings of fresh food and Japanese wares.

Just two years since its first store opened in Hong Kong, Don Quijote now has eight outlets here and the discount giant’s annual turnover has reached 30 billion yen ($262 million).

Many of its Hong Kong shoppers are looking for goods from Japan amid travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic.

“Japan is so familiar to many Hong Kongers that we feel like it is our second homeland,” said a local woman working for a real estate agency who often shops at the store. “I cannot go to Japan currently due to the coronavirus crisis, so I look for new products and novelties at Don Quijote.”

Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp. (PPIH), the chain’s parent company, is doing business in Hong Kong under the brand name Don Don Donki. Its supermarkets sell fresh fish, meat, sushi, fruits and sweets.

As the next step in its push here, it plans to start operations of its first conveyor-belt sushi restaurant by the end of October.

According to PPIH, nearly all the goods handled at Don Don Donki are produced by Japanese brands.

Its stores in Causeway Bay and other busy commercial areas are open around the clock. They are so congested between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on weekends that people have to push and wriggle through the packed crowds to get the items they are after.

The first Don Don Donki outlet opened in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon in July 2019. One-third of its population of 2.29 million citizens had visited Japan in 2019 before the start of the COVID crisis early last year. 

“Going to our stores provides shoppers with a sort of pseudo tour of Japan free of charge while staying in Hong Kong,” said Mitsuyoshi Takeuchi, president of the company’s Hong Kong subsidiary who serves as a PPIH managing executive officer. “Fresh food products sold especially well when stricter business regulations were imposed on restaurant operators due to the coronavirus crisis.”

Hong Kong has a ferocious appetite for Japanese food. It has been the biggest importer of Japanese food products for 16 years in a row among countries and regions around the world.

Data from PPIH shows three outlets in Hong Kong are among the top five chain stores posting the largest sales, despite that there are some 650 Don Quijote shops in Japan, the United States and elsewhere across the globe.

PPIH is planning to increase the number of stores in Hong Kong to 24 by 2024 and opened the first outlet in nearby Macao in September.

The corporation’s first conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, Sen Sen Sushi, started operations in Hong Kong on Oct. 29. It boasts 90 kinds of sushi, such as bluefin tuna, and offers fish-cutting shows and other events, according to company representatives.

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Takeuchi explained why so many Hong Kongers showed up at Don Don Donki despite the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Question: Why do you think Hong Kongers love shopping at Don Don Donki so much?

Takeuchi: Hong Kong has been the largest importer of Japanese food products around the world for 16 consecutive years. Japanese items are really popular here. Hong Kong is also a shopping heaven and has a culture of enjoying shopping. We prepare Japanese goods that cannot be found at other shops in the city, with items from Japan accounting for 99 percent of all our handled articles. Customers who enjoy shopping with us often say our shops are like amusement parks.

Q: Can you share your opinion on your company’s brisk sales?

Takeuchi: Don Quijote has about 600 stores in Japan and more than 50 overseas. The three most popular stores in Hong Kong are among the top five sales generators across the world, although the outlets in Hong Kong are about one-third the size of their core Japanese counterparts and do not sell brand-name goods or electronics. Sales from the eight stores over the last year totaled 30 billion yen.

Q: What’s your take on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak?

Takeuchi: The coronavirus crisis exerted a rather positive influence on our proceeds in some respects because we deal with life necessities. People currently cannot travel to Japan due to travel restrictions. But visiting our stores will offer them a sort of pseudo tour of Japan. The offering, on top of all that, is for free. Especially when restaurants faced stricter business regulations, our fresh foodstuffs sold very well, as they are cheaper than dining at eateries. Now that the number of new daily infections is remaining low and restaurants are resuming operations, fresh food sales have returned to a normal level. I feel the interest in the safety and security of Japanese products has further grown through the coronavirus crisis.

Q: What kind of products have proven popular in Hong Kong in particular?

Takeuchi: Don Quijote is typically seen as a discount shop in Japan, but Hong Kongers view it in a different way. The four major fresh products of fish, veggies, meat and ready-made meals make up 35 to 40 percent of the total (sales). For example, we have technology that lets us transport salmon while it is chilled, not frozen, to provide a high degree of freshness. Though fresh sashimi, fruits and other food would be able to be consumed only during visits to Japan, they have become available in Hong Kong households.

One especially sought-after item is the baked sweet potato. The mature Beni Haruka potato is baked with special equipment. Around 500 potatoes are bought at each of our stores daily. We also sell about 1,000 baked imitation crab sticks. We were worried that they would be mistaken for actual crab, so we specified the products are not from crab in the sales section. But customers appeared to know that already and sales did not decline.

Q: Do you have any plans to raise the number of stores from the current eight?

Takeuchi: We are planning to increase the number in Hong Kong to 24 stores by 2024. We opened the first shop in Macao in September. The (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao) Greater Bay Area (economic development) project is under way and we feel that large economic growth can be expected. Because tens of millions of tourists from the Chinese continent will return after the end of the coronavirus crisis, we must prepare ourselves for that time. We do not have any plans to open outlets on the continent as of now, but we believe we will someday get a chance if the coronavirus crisis ends and import restrictions are eased.