It sounds like an oxymoron. The king of cheap, discount shopping launching its own brand? Fear not, Don Quijote is sticking to its usual weapon: bargains.
Under the brand name 情熱価格 (”passion price”), 140 products will be sold at all stores nationwide. The biggest fanfare surrounds their ultra-cheap jeans, priced at 690 yen ($7.60), sold in ten types for men and women. Other products include 398 yen ($4.38) wine. The chain is undercutting major supermarkets by between 10-30% and also cheap brands like gu, which sells jeans for the comparatively exorbitant price of 990 yen ($10.90).
(Image courtesy of milfled.seesaa.net.)
Don Quijote has big hopes for this private brand. They announced a sales target for their jeans of 200k within a year and plans to increase the number products to 300 in December, including digital TVs. In total, within two years the chains expects the brand to reach 5% (250 billion yen) of total sales.
How can Don Quijote be so cheap? Well, China is the source of a lot of their raw materials and manufacturing. Will this put Japanese consumers off the brand?
William is one of the editors of JapanTrends.com and a Project Manager at 
Will this put Japanese consumers off the brand?
Not at all. If “made in China” was an issue at all nobody would be shopping at Don Quijote (or Uniqlo) in the first place.