Daiei daisuki!

Other than Daiso, Daiei is the store to hit for discount household items. They're not so big on furniture, but they've got everything else that I couldn't find at Daiso or Ikea, and at much better prices than Ikea too (nothing beats Daiso prices so far ^.^) ! It is also a few blocks down from the West Entrance of the Yokohama Station, right next door to Don Quixote, in fact.

I think I like Daiei much much much better than Ikea. For one, it doesn't involve this massive maze-like display floor that just drains energy out of you. Daiei is just like any other department store, minus the department store prices. The ground floor is a supermarket, then each of the several floors up is departmentalized for clothing, shoes, household items. They even have a book store that spans 2 floors, to which hubby made a bee line (for me it's cosmetics, for him it's books LOL). But check this, of those 2 floors, one is for general books and the other is almost entirely dedicated to manga!!! Holy crap I've never seen so many manga in my life! It was row after row after dizzying row of manga. If I were a better otaku I probably would have camp out on that floor for a while. Make that a looooooong while.

With all that said, the major major selling point for us is that Daiei offers next-morning home delivery for just another 330yen per purchase, regardless of weight. You don't want to carry home those 3 heavy book cabinets you just bought? Pay an extra 330yen and you can have them delivered right to your door the very next morning! Compare that with the 980yen Ikea charges for packages less than 20kg, 1,980yen for up to 30 kg, and 2,980yen for heavier things, and they took a few days too! Beat that, Ikea!

Because of that nifty delivery service, within the past week hubby and I have paid the store some 6-7 visits :D The store clerks are probably thinking we're obsessive compulsive.