MINISO — Local services in Chicago

For those of you who are not familiar with the brand and have a thing for cute Japanese inspired products, you need to know that this is not Japanese whatsoever, it is 100% Chinese. The style of the products mimic Japanese stores such as Muji but the quality of the products are not much better than the stuff you will find in the shady Chinese souvenir store just a few doors down. Affordable prices, absolutely, high quality, I don't think so. Everything is about packaging and market branding. You put an attractive design outside of a cheap Chinese product you will get those hello kitty lovers to come in to spend their hard earned money.

Please don't get me wrong, I have visited MINISO many times in the past, the ones in California, the one in Florida and even the ones in Mexico. I bought items at MINISO before and that is why I can say what I said above. I bought the items there because they are cheap and I usually just throw them out after a few uses because they will soon "expire" in some form or fashion. The only thing which I kept from MINISO is a blue tooth speaker, I don't use it because the sound quality is horrible but it only costed $30 but it is cute looking so I kept it for display. In other words, I don't dislike the store, I just want to make sure others know the truth before shopping here. Do not be blinded by the low prices or any claim of high quality, well maybe the plastic spoons.

BTW, I believe the owner of this MINISO also owns Seoul Taco downtown.

To the owner, please do not reply to this review trying to justify or respond to what I said above because those are just facts. I was the one who put your store information as the first edit on Google map before you even opened, so I must not hate...

Wow, im really surprised at the negative reviews. It's a store carrying kawaii type items and yes, i am familiar with this brand as well as similar brands. I can see tweens and teens liking this kinda stuff mostly and for gifting. It was well laid out, nright, the items on display were cute, the workers were super friendly, and to me the quality of stuff seemed fine and on par with either the same or very similar items we've seen elsewhere. Chicago is always more expensive on everything than where we are from and because i'm cheap, I did a quick search on Amazon of a couple items we were looking at while in the store and found they were within a few bucks of each other. The item we bought was actually cheaper in the store than what I could find it online. I reduced one star because, even tho it's posted and we were told by an employee, i don't like a hard-core no...

I visited the store today (8/19 at 5 PM) and unfortunately had an unpleasant experience with the cashier. From the start, she came across as unwelcoming. Since some prices weren’t listed, I kindly asked for the cost of an item, but the response felt dismissive. When I paid, there was no acknowledgment or thank you, which made the whole interaction feel uncomfortable, it almost felt as if I was bothering her.

I understand everyone has off days, but as a customer, the experience felt discouraging and uninviting. Even asking the price felt awkward, and I left feeling unwelcome. I hope the store takes this as constructive feedback, as the way customers are greeted and acknowledged really makes a difference. At this point, I don’t plan...