The Don Quijote Discount Deathtrap!

[Bongo]

After arson at two Don Quijote stores in Saitama which left 3 employees dead, the fire department raided their stores and found fire regulations were still being broken even after they warned them earlier this year about 150 violations!
Man, all that crap piled up to the roof with those narrow maze like passage ways makes Don Quijote a Discount Deathtrap.
Certainly not a place you want to do your last minute Xmas shopping with some nutter on the loose setting fire to the place.
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/

[gomichild]

every don-ki store is an accident waiting to happen...

[Taro Toporific]

every don-ki store is an accident waiting to happen...

So let's jet to the Donji in question now!

[Bongo]

Wonder how little those 3 poor kids were paid hourly to work in that waiting to happen Inferno? 750 Yen an hour 800 perhaps.
Also wonder how little their famillies will compensated for their deaths in this third world country, where human life is worth not much more than 10,000,000 Yen. Shit, discount death trap to discount life compensation.
Perhaps, this whole country is run by Don Death Trap Quijote?


PS: This is what happens when fire departments have no clout to impose regulations or shut down those that do not conform to them.

[Bongo]

It was just reported that there were fires at other stores including Yokohama.

I bet this is Yakuza trying to extort money from them and torching the place after they refused.

[Kuang_Grade]

My first time in the Donki at Kabukicho, I thought to myself, if there is ever a spark in the place, it is going to be like the Triangle fire of 1911. I'm a big fan of Donki, but I don't understand why anyone would work in death traps like the Kabukicho or Shibuya stores....The Akihabara and the other Shinjuku (north for Kabukicho) store seem a bit safer (ie, I saw at least more than one clear exit in the place)

[Mulboyne]

Ironically, the Don Quijote on Yasukuni Dori is a molotov cocktail`s throw from the site of the Kabukicho fire a few years back that killed several because the stairways were being used for storage. The fire department was supposed to have checked all buildings in the vicinity the store is as cramped as the others like. The Shokuan Dori branch up the road is even worse. Although it is just on one floor, it is difficult to find the real exits, let alone the fire exits.
Don Quijote stock price was down its maximum daily limit (6,220 --> 5,220) on Wednesday with trading volume near 15% of outstanding shares.
No investor I ever met worried about the risk of a fire while the margins and growth were good.
A couple of pictures for those of you who have never seen a store

Wonder how little those 3 poor kids were paid hourly to work in that waiting to happen Inferno? 750 Yen an hour 800 perhaps.

Probably that. However, one good thing about the company is that they were prepared to promote young workers quickly - some store managers are only in their early twenties - so it was regarded as a good job to get. I give credit to the staff for getting all the customers to safety. Some of the early reports suggest that the three who died went back in to try to put out the fire or look for other customers.
Here are some pictures from Asahi and Mainichi of the gutted stores
[

[Mulboyne]

Certainly not a place you want to do your last minute Xmas shopping with some nutter on the loose setting fire to the place.

MDN: Same Don Quijote store hit by another arson attack
SAITAMA -- A Don Quijote outlet that was attacked by an arsonist late Monday night has been struck by fire again, police said...At around 3:10 p.m. on Wednesday, an employee of the Don Quijote Omiya-Owada outlet in Minuma-ku, Saitama, found seven blankets burning, and used a fire extinguisher to quickly put the fire out, according to police investigators. Nobody was injured in the incident...Employees and security guards chased a suspicious man and a surveillance camera caught him on film, company officials said. The workers spotted the man fleeing in a car and identified the type of the vehicle to police, investigators said. A towel soaked with what appears to be kerosene was found near the burning blankets, leading investigators to suspect arson.

MDN: Arsonists often target Don Quijote stores
Arsonists have often struck Don Quijote discount store outlets in Tokyo, though never with the fatal results like those seen in Saitama Prefecture blazes earlier this week, according to the Metropolitan Fire Department. In a period from February last year until early March this year, arsonists lit seven minor blazes in Don Quijote stores throughout the capital.

[djgizmoe]

It was just reported that there were fires at other stores including Yokohama.

I bet this is Yakuza trying to extort money from them and torching the place after they refused.

That's my knee-jerk suspicion as well...It's depressing that after arsonists torched the place, the first reaction of the authorities was to cite Don Q. for broken safety regulations...

[Captain Japan]

Theft suspect chased at time of arson
Japan Times

SAITAMA (Kyodo) A 47-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly stealing a shopping basket from a Don Quijote outlet here Wednesday around 3 p.m. -- the same time that merchandise was set on fire, police said.

The woman was arrested Thursday on suspicion of taking a 800 yen basket from the Omiyaowada store. A fire broke out around that time in the bedding section.

The woman was later caught with the basket, which also contained several other items from the store, including a watch, but she was quoted as telling police that she had no recollection of stealing it.

Police are expected to question her in connection with the fire, as well as two other fires at the Omiyaowada and Urawakagetu outlets of Don Quijote on Monday night. The bodies of three employees were found in the rubble of the latter fire.

Investigators said the woman was arrested early Nov. 18 for breaking into the same Don Quijote outlet by shattering the automatic doors with a hammer before stealing eight items, including a travel bag, worth a total 58,000 yen.

She was released without charges after a psychiatric test showed she may not be able to be held liable for her actions.

[Bongo]

Seem like this has started a fad. Itoyokada had a fire in a toilet at two of its branches and another famous chain store also had a fire lit in their toilet.

[Bongo]

Shit, another Don Deathtrap store gets torched in Tokyo today!

[Mulboyne]

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041226/kyodo/d8771te00.html

Another fire broke out early Sunday at a Tokyo outlet of the major discount store chain Don Quijote Co., which has been hit by a series of suspected arson attacks, but all employees and customers are safe, police said. The police suspect the possibility of arson in the latest case as a man and a woman who first found the fire said smoke had been coming from the lower half of a jacket on sale in the clothing section on the second floor of the outlet in Setagaya Ward. The fire started around 1:40 a.m. and burned down 630 square meters of the second floor of the two-story building with a total floor space of 1,300 square meters, according to the police. There were 21 employees and around 50 customers inside at the time of the fire, but all of them were safely evacuated, it said.
...The latest fire came after the Tokyo Fire Department issued a warning to Don Quijote President Takao Yasuda on Friday about improving fire prevention measures. The department has found 214 violations of the fire law at 24 of the 31 Don Quijote outlets in Tokyo. The violations include putting things in a stairway that would block the passage in the event of emergency. It will conduct emergency investigations at all of the 30 other outlets in Tokyo on Sunday.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Burned paper found in Don Quijote store
Burned toilet paper balls were discovered late Saturday at a Don Quijote discount store in Saiwai Ward, Kawasaki, in what police said they suspected was a case of malicious mischief. A janitor discovered the remains of two fist-sized balls of burned toilet paper in a men's rest room on the first floor. About 300 customers and store employees were in the store at the time. The rest room was temporarily closed, and no one was injured in the suspicious fire.
Yomiuri: Mass retailers flouting fire-prevention laws
The series of suspected cases of arson at Don Quijote outlets have brought to light substandard fire-prevention measures at mass retailers...Prof. Yuji Hasemi, who teaches disaster prevention in building design at Waseda University, inspected the scene of the Urawa Kagetsu blaze, and said, "As merchandise was piled up to near the ceiling, flames would reach the ceiling immediately after a fire started."...But the firm has no plans to change its "compressive display" store layout, saying the layout was not related to the spread of fires at its stores.
The Fire Service Law does not ban compressive-display layouts, nor specify a minimum space between display racks and ceilings. But a senior department officer said, "There's a strong relationship between compressive displays and the rate at which a fire spreads."
Hasemi agreed, saying: "There's a fear that at other mass retailers, which display merchandise the same way as Don Quijote, flames could run along the ceiling and spread to all floors instantly unless the fire is promptly brought under control as soon as it breaks out. Mountains of goods could collapse and block passages."

[Bongo]

Obviously the bitch they caught for shoplifting isn't the one going around lighting the DQ-Deathtraps!

[Taro Toporific]

Five nabbed over Don Quijote blackmail threats
Mainichi Shimbun, Jan 11
... "We thought that if we threatened Don Quijote with arson we would get the money," one of the five was quoted as telling police....

[Taro Toporific]

12-y.o. girl held over Tokyo supermarket arson
(Mainichi Shimbun, Jan. 13, 2005)
An elementary school girl who set fire to clothes and blankets at a Tokyo supermarket after watching a television program showing fires has been taken into custody and reported to a child consultation center...
...When questioned by police, she reportedly told officers she had started the fire after seeing blazes break out at the Don Quijote discount retail chain in Saitama Prefecture.
"I saw the Don Quijote fires on TV, and I wondered what kind of disturbance it would cause if I lit a fire," she was quoted as saying....more...

[Captain Japan]

Don Quijote arson suspect withdraws confessions
Mainichi

SAITAMA -- Noriko Watanabe, the woman arrested for lighting a fire that killed three employees of a Don Quijote discount store in Saitama, has withdrawn her police confession and told her lawyer that she didn't light any fires, it has been learned.

Watanabe, 47, is accused of lighting several fires at several Don Quijote discount stores, including one at the Urawa-Kagetsu store that killed three employees....the rest...

This part is pretty good:

"I was tired and I signed them because I didn't really care what happened," she said. She reportedly denied lighting the fires and said she would deny the allegations against her in her trial.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Japan Today: Woman sentenced to life for starting fire that killed 3 at Don Quijote store

The Saitama District Court sentenced a woman to life imprisonment Friday for starting a fire at a discount store in the city of Saitama in 2004 that killed three sales clerks there. Judge Yoshinobu Iida said Noriko Watanabe, 49, set fire to four outlets operated by Don Quijote Co on Dec 13 and 15 in 2004. The Dec 13 fire destroyed one of the stores, killing three employees. Watanabe was charged with arson, attempted arson and theft. She was also charged with attempted arson at three other stores and theft for stealing goods. She has never given a motive for starting the fire. The court also blamed the fire disaster partly on Don Quijote's unique way of displaying goods in which it piles up as many items as possible to the ceiling. An insufficient anti-disaster system and a lack of anti-fire training for employees were also responsible for the disaster, according to the ruling.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: 2nd Don Quijote store hit by suspected arson

A suspected arsonist struck a Don Quijote discount store in Yokohama on Wednesday night, apparently after knocking out the store's electrical power, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The Kanagawa prefectural police are investigating the fire, the second at a Yokohama Don Quijote store in the past six weeks. The fire occurred at Don Quijote Tomei Yokohama Inter store in Midori Ward. The police believe it was a planned arson because security cameras in the store were not working during the fire due to the power outage. The police suspect the same person set fire to another Don Quijote franchise in the city in May. According to the police, the fire broke out at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in a clothing corner. It was extinguished after burning several men's undergarments and about 50 square centimeters of the floor. Power was cut in the entire building 18 minutes before the fire broke out. The fire occurred during the power outage, according to an investigative source. The police discovered that part of the store's electricity system had been doctored to temporarily cut off power.

[Mulboyne]

A former Donki executive has been given a 3 year and 6 month prison sentence for a 30 million yen fraud relating to compensation payments the company made to the families of those who died in the 2004 arson attacks. He diverted over 30 million yen to a consulting company he set up himself under the guise of advising on the issue. It doesn't appear to have been a very sophisticated fraud and it sounds like he had built up some debts boozing in hostess clubs which he needed to pay for.

Source (Japanese)

[matsuki]

A former Donki executive has been given a 3 year and 6 month prison sentence for a 30 million yen fraud relating to compensation payments the company made to the families of those who died in the 2004 arson attacks. He diverted over 30 million yen to a consulting company he set up himself under the guise of advising on the issue. It doesn't appear to have been a very sophisticated fraud and it sounds like he had built up some debts boozing in hostess clubs which he needed to pay for.

Source (Japanese)

Did he used to work at Olympus?

Hope the families make out on this and the exec gets castrated. I know neither will happen but we can dream, yes?

[Catoneinutica]

A former Donki executive has been given a 3 year and 6 month prison sentence for a 30 million yen fraud relating to compensation payments the company made to the families of those who died in the 2004 arson attacks. He diverted over 30 million yen to a consulting company he set up himself under the guise of advising on the issue. It doesn't appear to have been a very sophisticated fraud and it sounds like he had built up some debts boozing in hostess clubs which he needed to pay for.

Source (Japanese)

A former (ahem) executive sleazes away money that was intended to compensate victims of the company's sleazy disregard for customer safety. Pure class. Good thing the nihonjin aren't money-grubbers like those vulgar shinajin!