Blind boxes with mystery treats tucked inside; cutesy home accessories; trading cards, and more games than you could shake a stick at.
These are some of the offerings available at Miniso, a shop selling trinkets and collabs with the likes of Disney, Barbie, Pokémon, and Care Bears.
Starting out in China as a chain specialising in household and consumer goods, Miniso has since expanded worldwide to include more than 6,000 shops across 100 countries.
In the UK alone, there are already more than 44 stores, including one on London’s Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, and Camden, as well as locations in Brighton, Basingstoke, Cambridge, Manchester and Leeds.
Now, though, Miniso is proving that it’s still got fans wrapped around its oh-so-cute thumbs, as a brand-new shop has just debuted in Livingston, up in Scotland – and there was quite the welcoming committee.
This was no small fanfare: more than 300 people joined the queue up to four hours before the shop was opened, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
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2025 has been a grand old year for Miniso, as countless new stores have opened – and in November, stores in Uxbridge, Peterborough, Hammersmith, Glasgow Buchanan and Sheffield Meadowhall were announced, with other notable additions so far this year including Brighton North Street, Bond Street Station, and Telford.
What can you buy at Miniso?
Prices start as small as £1, including things like lemon-patterned wire storage baskets and dustproof containers, so if you’re looking to add a few trinkets to your home office, now’s your chance.
Need to up your cleaning game? There’s plenty in this realm on offer, including handsomely priced cleaning brushes and sponges, as well as Hello Kitty-themed teaspoons, bento boxes and cookie cutters for the wider kitchen cupboard.
Miniso is famed for its brand collaborations, with ranges including Sanrio, Barbie, Minions, Pokémon and Disney, as well as the popular ‘blind box,’ which gives shoppers the chance to purchase a goody bag with a bunch of mystery offerings, including the Shrek (£9.79), Sanrio characters (£13.99), and My Melody Afternoon Tea collections (£14.99).
As such, there’s been plenty of hype on social media about Miniso – with many fawning over the collabs in particular.
‘This store is literally the cutest thing I’ve ever been in,’ @freyaheath told her TikTok fans of her visit to the brand’s Trafford Centre location up in Manchester.
‘The little keyrings that they had – I wanted to buy them all. They also had these little figures you could get, and they did Toy Story, [Lilo and] Stitch, Disney Princess, Care Bears…they were just too cute.’
Elsewhere, @gothiquegirly filmed herself taking her partner to a Miniso store, joking: ‘me taking him to the pinkest, cutest, girliest store in the mall,’ while @rinawyd said: ‘buying everything my girlfriend touches from Miniso.’
Three words: take our money.
A version of this article was originally published on October 16, 2024.
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