One of the biggest and most obvious trends in the North American consumption landscape has been the rise of the monolithic big-box superstore represented so well by retail outlets such as Wal-Mart and warehouse club stores like CostCo.  They represent human ingenuity, efficiency and put our bottomless consumption on display 30,000 square feet at a time.

There is a certain amount of glitz and glamour that goes along with our shopping experiences.  Even simple utilitarian items like tooth paste and razor blades can be found double and triple-packaged with sparkles, stickers and an extra layer or two of plastic wrap.  All of this overzealous packaging is really marketing: put on a pretty display to get our attention, mark up the price an extra dollar, and convince us that a package of razor blade is somehow worth over $20.

There is a culture around this appeal for texture, colour and pizzaz.  The same whizz-bang factor that puts bums in seats for the latest movie theatre action blockbuster also attracts us to buy products that are bright, loud and impossibly trendy.

It's not an "American thing" either, most of this behaviour is just human nature.  Don't believe me?  Next time you go grocery shopping with your 5-year-old show him a big box of Froot Loops cereal and then one of those generic sacks of no-name brand Fruity-O's stuffed on the bottom shelf.  Which do you think he'll choose? Nine times out of ten Toocan Sam will win.  It's all about the box.

Still, despite this trend many of us eventually "grow-up" when it comes to our consumer habits.  First Froot Loops get replaced with Bran Flakes which may eventually get replaced with scooping cereal out of bins in the store's bulk section.  If you want to get all artsy-fartsy about it you could say that many of us become more sophisticated in our tastes.  I'd say the truth is many of us just get tired of Toocan Sam and opt to eat something healthier and save a dollar at the same time.

So what does this have to do with a Japanese lifestyle store?  Well, first let me allow Muji to introduce themselves (courtesy their official web site):

MUJI is not a brand.  MUJI does not make products of individuality or fashion, nor does MUJI reflect the popularity of its name in its prices.  MUJI creates products with a view toward global consumption of the future.  This means that we do not create products that lure customers into believing that "this is the best" of "I must have this."  We would like our customers to feel the rational sense of satisfaction that comes not with "this is the best," but with "this is enough."  "Best" becomes "enough".

Basically, think of Muji as a cross between The Gap and Ikea except even more minimalist, simpler, toned-down.  The clean aesthetic and less-is-more attitiude has made Muji so popular in Japan that they dub the Muji-obsessed "Mujirers". And now that the brand has gone global there are bound to be "Mujirers" popping up all over the place.

So what's the big deal?  The inside of a Muji store is almost, well boring.  Small piles of beige clothes, neat stacks of clear plastic storage containers.  But that's the whole point.

A well-travelled friend of mine once described Japan to me as a place where "New York and Las Vegas got together and threw up all their worst parts on a zen garden."  Japan is no more immune to the appeal of flashing lights, slick product packaging and gaudy overdesign than we are.  Yet concepts like Muji may just represent a bit of a post-materialist shift in Japan.

There is certainly no reason why similar concepts wouldn't work around the globe, especially in light of the financial problems of this generation.  Less can be more.  We can be satisfied with having enough.  We can even do it The American Way - imagine a big box store without the cardboard displays, plastic wrap and styrofoam.

From Muji:

Unless we adopt values informed by moderation and self-restraint, the world will find itself at an impasse.  All people living today deep down are probably already beginning to consider greater self-restraint as a way of life.

The appeal of a lifestyle store such as Muji is its appeal to that desire in us to use and accumulate less "stuff" in our lives.  I think we're seeing the early signs of some big changes in the way we act as consumers and they way we judge value in products.  We may all have to grow up a little faster, but ultimately we'll all be the better for it.

Hit the jump to learn more about Muji and where you can buy their products.

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