Sanrio

I walked by the other evening and saw this Sanrio location has closed. I really enjoyed browsing here whenever I come to Japantown, and this was one of few Sanrio locations that was still around.
Sigh! Too bad.

What’s not to love about a Sanrio store. It’s Hello Kitty Hello. My jaw dropped when I walked into this store. This is a Hello Kitty lover’s paradise and I never knew that there were Sanrio stores in America. This was a major find for me and my boyfriend as loving as he is was kind enough to indulge me as I browsed the store for what must have been an hour. It is easy to get caught up in a store like this with so make Sanrio merch for sale. I finally settled on a black patent leather black Hello Kitty Wallet and the world’s most adorable Deery Lou change purse. This location has great selection for Hello Kitty lovers of all ages. My only regret is that there isn’t one in my hometown.

Typical Sanrio store. The only difference is that it is in Japan Town. They have a variety of cool things. My most favorite part of this store was looking at the Hello Kitty bags. There is such a huge selection of purses, backpacks, wallets and more. The plush animal selection is also adorable.
The workers were extremely friendly and greeted you with a smile. What a cool place to be.

Great Sanrio in the Heart of Japan Town. Can’t get any better than that! This is where the most magical moment of my life took place, I took a picture with life size Hello Kitty!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh! She gave me a hug and everything. Can’t wait to go back here and look for trinkets to buy.

This Sanrio is pretty big. And there’s lots of stuff for everyone! I ended up walking out of the store with a new pair of earrings and an iPhone 5 My Melody case. But I probably could have easily spent more pretty easily if I wanted to.

This is probably my favorite Sanrio in the Bay area. Somehow, they just seem to have more stuff than the others!

This is an amazing location for a SANRIO store, and to my surprise, as I did not know they were still around! This location has so many nostalgic hello kitty pieces as well as old characters from when I was a child. The prices, as I remember them being, are not super cheap but it is Hello Kitty, and if you are a fan, it is a fun store.

I’ve been to Sanrio ever since I was a child and I’ve seen many messy stores that the employees just don’t maintain.
(+) this is one of the bigger and more well-​organized Sanrio’s
(+) with friendly employees
(+) and there’s a candy section!!!
Most of the time, I just walk through to look at what new gadgets Sanrio has come up with for the next generation. Sometimes, it’s to buy myself a wallet, bag, or lanyard (:

I’ve been to many a Sanrio store, but this one stands above the rest because of its really nice employees! There was one particular Hello Kitty backpack I was after, and this was the only store that carried it. I called, asked for its availability and was told they had three left and they would set one aside for me. When I walked in, I said I had called earlier and even when the employee I encountered at the store wasn’t the one that helped me on the phone, she knew exaclty who I was, referred to me by name, and collected the backpack for me. That is the kind of treatment you appreciate after driving through the afternoon rush hour traffic from the east bay to the city after a crazy day at work just to get this wretched backpack. But its a wretchedly cute backpack for an appreciative 7 year old cutie patootie daughter of mine who positively deserves it!
Very nice, J-​Town Sanrio. Thanks for helping out a busy mom like me. Because my transacton was so smooth, I had enough time to treat myself to a Belly Good crêpe across the way!

The best Sanrio I’ve ever been to! I love how this location isn’t as busy and the staff are REALLY nice! This location reminds me of how it used to be when i was a little kid always wanting to go to Sanrio downtown (when it used to be 2 floors a LONG time ago & when the Serramonte one used to be nicer but not anymore!) Everytime I come here I’m always greeted and asked by an employee and asked if I’m looking for anything. That’s 5 stars customer service right there, and the manager and her staff are also very friendly! Went here on Blk Friday and they asked if I wanted to buy something so that they can donate it to a foundation & after that I got TRIPLE the stamps on my bonus cards. This was the only location that was doing this offer!

AHHHH I WANT EVERYTHING IN THIS STORE… but I must resist… I seriously felt like a kid in a candy store. instead I was surrounded by ALL things HELLO KITTY and FRIENDS… in every little thing you could think of. unfortunately I couldn’t buy anything that wasn’t going to become useful to me. so I had to step away. but the workers and friendly and the store is well stocked. Maybe another time.

Decent store. I like to visit here when there are festivals in Japantown (Cherry Blossom, J-​pop Summit, etc) because there is usually some kind of Hello Kitty activity going on such as face painting, photo with Hello Kitty, limited edition items, etc. The thing I don’t like about this store is that it can get super hot inside (probably the lights?) and when there are a lot of people, it’s practically impossible to maneuver around the store without bumping into a shelf or a stroller. There’s also a very dangerous candy section (non HK related) that parents should be warned about!

I love this particular Sanrio store. It’s really large and has a great assortment of stuff, and in particular a large selection of plushies and bags. During the Cherry Blossom Festival, you can your face painted like one of the Sanrio characters, along with a little hat of the person you’re being painted up to look like. However the line for that was ridiculously long so I didn’t get to become Keroppi for a day… dammit. The staff are friendly here, the store is always clean, and I’ve found some things at this Sanrio that I haven’t found at others.

So with a free day, I decided to make a solo trip to find the Sanrio store in Japantown that I kept hearing about.
Was lucky enough to find free parking for 2 hours on the street and walked to the Sanrio store on a pretty cold day. For the love, is June usually this freezing balls cold? No, seriously???
Anywho, this cut store was in the long Japantown complex of noodle and sushi joints. However… I’m not quite sure what others’ review of this place is stating in that it’s the «best» Sanrio store. To me, it really came off as any other one. In fact, I actually like the Sanrio store at the mall Market better than this one.
Predominantly filled with Hello Kitty items, not much of the other characters. I do have to admit their selection of Hello Kitty stuffed animals are abundant, but still, lack of other characters kinda was disappointed.
I left the store with brownie stencils at least. And goodness, can the employee working there at least attempt to smile when a customer enters? I’m just sayin.

This used to be an AMAZING music store.
Now it’s full of Hello Kitty. I found a good gift for my friend here today. This is the only reason it gets more than 1 star.
For a Sanrio store, it needs more Chococat.

Though not a big fan of HK, the moment I saw Sanrio shop at J-​town I end up getting at least an item from here. Seriously authentic HK store. Love love love all of their cute stuffs from car key caps to jewelery, stuffed toys, stationary items. Great place to get gifts for those love HK.

I’ve been here once with my ex. The customer service was nice and there’s ton of things to buy. But the bad part is that, since it’s in the Japan Town Mall, the stores next to it also has hello kitty. So it was really hard for me to debate what to get.
The store is organized & clean. Nice (:

Lately, I’ve been disappointed with all Sanrios. They have either been closing down or carrying crap but this store is really stocked well, it carries most of the «special» items that the Union Square one does. It’s pretty clean and not so busy.

this is THE BEST sanrio store in northern california.
why?
*extremely detailed and very well organized.
*super ultra clean.
*their stock is generous.
*hard to find items elsewhere, will be guaranteed to be here.
*their customer service is perfect. staff is super helpful, friendly, welcoming and NOT lazy. they’re all so great!
*they’ve got SF souvenir type post cards, stickers, notepads as well.
*their surprise bags for $ 5.00 doesn’t disappoint ;)
if you’re ever in SF, and you love all things hello kitty and friends, you’ve got to make a special trip out to japan town, just for sanrio!

This new Sanrio store makes up for the fact that the huge downtown Sanrio (my playground) store closed down many years ago. This has to be bigger than any mall Sanrio store I’ve seen. Besides the crêpe place, this makes the trip to J-​town totally worth it when my bf brings me there solely because he loves the On The Bridge restaurant.
It has everything from the standard Sanrio pencils, candies, stuff animals, purses, luggage to a Hello Kitty toaster oven to even Hello Kitty boy shorts & thongs & rhinestone hoodies. I sadly left without buying anything, but I will be back!
Hello Kitty is the essence of cutsey-​ness & innocence that girls and woman of all ages can & will continue to love.