Popular Japanese '100-yen' store Oomomo opens in Toronto

An Oomomo shop in Edmonton is seen here. (Facebook: Oomomo Alberta)

A Japanese shop known for its eclectic variety of quirky products has opened its first location in Ontario, with plans to expand across Canada.

Oomomo -- which means “big peach” in Japanese -- opened its first Canadian store in November at the West Edmonton Mall. Oomomo is based off 100-yen stores in Japan, which sell everyday basics such as tableware, stationery, beauty products and snacks. Most items are priced under $3.

The newest location opened Saturday in Toronto, where hundreds of people lined up in the cold outside the North York shop.

“Customers who know about these brands were exceptionally excited of our opening,” the store’s owner Mimi Lam said in an email to CTVNews.ca.

She said people who hadn’t heard of the store chain can “expect lots of surprises [and] products that one will not find in a regular Canadian retail store.”

“We want to introduce the Canadian culture [to] the Japanese ways of daily living,” she said, adding that their social media presence has helped build up excitement among customers.

Oomomo sells everything from stainless steel soap to erasers shaped like tiny rolls of sushi to socks printed with shiba inus, a popular breed of dog in Japan. Many of those products are from Seria and Daiso, a popular discount brand with thousands of shops in Japan.

Oomomo, which has been in business for 20 years, sells more than 8,000 products from several popular brands from Japan. In a press release, the company’s president Andy Cheng called their products “your partner in life.”

“Whether you are living on your own for the first time, or you're balancing a busy household, we will grow with you throughout your different stages of life,” he said.

The company already has a location in west Edmonton and plans to expand across Canada, with stores opening in Vancouver, Burnaby, B.C., north Edmonton and Markham, Ont.