Daiso and Ontario Mills Part Ways After Seven Years
By Joseph Montgomery
After introducing shoppers to inexpensive yet charming products since 2016, the Japanese-based retail chain has officially ended its run with the indoor shopping center.
The closure of a business is never easy for those who enjoy visiting or working there to handle. Everything about the business that the employees and customers cherish so much will be sincerely missed, especially if that business is simply like no other nearby.
Such is the case with one store that recently bid farewell to a local indoor mall.
After over seven years of treating shoppers to products that simultaneously come with low prices and high quality, the Daiso store at Ontario Mills officially closed its doors last month. The store's final day of operations for visitors at the indoor mall was January 20, while the remainder of the month was spent clearing out the store and its inventory.
First established in Japan back in 1977, Daiso is a retail company whose stores provide a variety of products, from beauty accessories and toys to office supplies and Japanese snack foods. According to the official Daiso U.S. website, the business currently owns and operates over six thousand stores across the globe, with over a hundred of these stores within the United States.
“We hold to the idea of the everyday low price providing infinite power to improve people's lives,” the website explains its goal as a retail chain. “We want to improve people's lives through the exciting discovery of our high-quality, innovative products.”
Frequent visitors to Ontario Mills were given the opportunity to experience such products for the first time on May 14, 2016, when the mall opened its very own Daiso outlet. Just situated between Rainforest Cafe and Dave & Buster’s, the store allowed anyone traveling through the mall to ― as the company’s motto goes ― “discover Daiso” and enjoy its output of trademark goods and merchandise.
This was not the only Daiso store to be opened within the Inland Empire that year, however. According to Neil Nisperos of the Daily Bulletin, a much bigger Daiso store was opened about a month later near Trader Joe's on Haven Avenue in Rancho Cucamonga.
One of the former employees of Ontario Mills’ Daiso store, Angel Cerrillos, first learned about the store’s closure on January 2 and "naturally was upset" by the news, especially considering their experience as an employee for the store for about six years.
“I recall customers being in shock that we were closing, as a lot of customers know we're inside the mall and like it, due to it being convenient,” they stated. “I know also some people were upset as this was the closest location for them.”
Cerrillos first started working for the Mills’ Daiso outlet in 2017, and then became an assistant manager for the store close to the end of 2020. They were, however, briefly relocated to the Daiso store in Haven for between four and five months that year due to the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The months they spent working at the Daiso in Haven were split up due to Ontario Mills closing twice that year, they explained.
They eventually returned to work at Ontario Mills during the autumn season of 2020.
What Cerrillos enjoyed the most while working at the Mills’ Daiso involved forming friendships with many of their coworkers along the way, while their least favorite aspect of working there involved encountering stubborn and inconsiderate customers.
While coming across such issues is inevitable with retail, they pointed out, they are "still not fun to deal with."
Cerrillos’ favorite memory at the Mills’ Daiso was their experience with its Halloween celebration back in 2022, during which employees dressed up and handed out candy to visiting trick-or-treaters, only to wrap things up with a small Halloween party.
Despite Daiso’s closure at Ontario Mills, Cerrillos plans to continue working for the company. For this month, they plan to transfer to another Daiso until the company opens a store much closer to them, hopefully within the next few months.
“As of right now, I plan to stay within the company and move my way up,” they explained. “However, I will be working on my own art simultaneously and hopefully be able to grow in that field as well.”
All in all, Cerrillos learned much while working for Daiso at Ontario Mills, let alone as an assistant manager. To them, their time spent working for Daiso ― and retail overall ― has helped them grow and gain more confidence as an individual.
“Retailing jobs in general are tiring, but can be very rewarding," they elaborated. "I'm glad that I took a risk and applied for this job, despite all its ups and downs, even though the store I am currently working at is closing.
“It's been a great experience overall, and has allowed me to grow as a person,” they continued. “I would definitely recommend trying out jobs you wouldn't think twice about, because you never know which one will change you for the better.”