The cashier was extremely rude towards my grandmother. She was basically yelling at her loud enough for me to hear on the second floor of the building, I would have given some words to this cashier, but I did not realize she was yelling at my grandmother. She also insulted my grandmother within earshot. (To give more context my grandmother was having credit card difficulties and is hard of hearing.) I expected better from a place in such a cultured area. My grandmother has gone to this shop for decades, but I personally will not recommend this place. The only advice I have for the owner is to give their terrible staff mandatory anger management and customer service classes. To limit who was working there we were there on Saturday, September 25, around noon. My grandmother and I are rightfully upset, disappointed, and disgusted about this situation!

I love this place .And so did my mother .From Japanese hand tools to culinary and practically all you could want, reasonably priced . Love .

Amazing selection of high-quality items, extremely helpful staff and a great overall vibe

Lots of Zojirushi appliances and large variety of quality items. Ill be going back.

My favorite place to copy keys, find new chopsticks or dish ware, tawashi... or just about anything.

Great selection of household supplies and Japanese imported goods.

Wonderful store, incredible range of household wares and owners are lovely!

You can find pretty much anything you need here. I was working on a painting project and they had exactly what I was looking for.

One of my favorite stores in SF. I love that they have everything I need!

Such a fun place to poke your head into. I came away with a beautiful new laundry basket made with sustainable reeds from Cambodia, several paper lanterns for home (the reason wed come) and a tiny lucky cat for my son. Such variety! I cant wait to go back.

Had what i looking for,great customer service.Just go look its nice

Love to go to Soko for regular hardware store stuff and cool Japanese things.

Everything you need.

Great local Japanese hardware store, carrying Japanese woodworking tools.

Everything from Japanese woodworking tools to tea pots. This place is full of amazing discoveries and the staff is very friendly and helpful. I studied wood furniture at CCA and frequented this place often for tools. Its a great place to visit frequently to peruse the new merchandise and discover some wonderfully-unusual gifts.

They dont have everything, but they always seem to have the random Japanese items I need when I go there.

Interesting hardware store with Asian influences

Theyve got reasonable quantities of the usual stuff like hammers and screws. But they also have a lot of Japanese style goods. All at reasonable prices

Great hardware store in Japantown. You can get Hardware there rice cookers knives cookbooks tea kettles pots pans bowls. Theyve got it all great spot

I love this place. Not just a regular hardware store. They have a large variety of Japanese kitchenware and great prices.

I think her name is Audry and she was very helpful when I want to find the parts to convert a beautiful porcelain vase into a lamp! It is filled with many many little fascinating parts that I can get answers on from her. I had a horrible time at Home Depot and felt that it was not worthy spending time after 3 hours at that hollow shell. ..time to find a unique and helpful hardware store...KITAZAWA seed packets!!!! Too many wonderful things to enjoy for to just forget! Another customer asked me where some special Buddhist bells were kept because they thought I worked there and yet I dont...I just love this special store!!!!

Employees were very helpful and friendly and I found what I needed in a matter of .minutes with their cheerful assistance.

I always visit this hardware store, whenever we are in the City. It is an old fashioned japanese hardware store. They sell cooking knives, kitchen ware, gardening, etc. Love this place

Soko Hardware is an institution, one of three remaining independent Japanese family owned business in Japantown. In addition to its historical significance, it is a fun place to explore and see what Japanese people use for everyday life. Soko Hardware carries both traditional tools and strange modern implements.

Has always been one of my favorites in SF

Great selection of hardware, kitchen products and paper lanterns. Affordable and with great service!

Fun stuff to buy. Love the kitchen stuff downstairs

I live nearby so its my go-to hardware store. I can run over in a few minutes. However, they close at 5:30 p.m.so you cant wait too long to realize you need something. They have a fairly decent selection of things fir a smaller place. I get my keys made their as well. They have some Japanese things that you might not find elsewhere. Quite handy.

Excellent hardware store with a wide variety of hot water dispensers, tea kettles, and tea cups.

This is a stop every time I come to Japan town. They have a surprisingly large selection of regular hardware items, and also a selection of traditional Japanese tools for gardening and woodworking. In addition to hardware, they have a great selection of kitchen tools, pots, pans, bowls, cups, and beautiful iron teapots downstairs.

Typical hardware store. Has A lot of Japanese items! Has basement! Quick service!

Cool store to browse. Besides hardware, Soko sells gardening tools and supplies for bonsai and ikebana, everything you need for cooking Japanese food (dishes, knives, rice cookers, bento boxes, etc., cultural items for Japanese holidays and ceremonies (Childrens Days dolls, tea service for Japanese wedding ceremony, etc.). There are two floors and a wealth of knowledge if you have questions. Family-owned and run. Truly a living history and a wonderful asset to the SF Bay Area Japanese American community

We were just visiting so I just looked around, but WOW. If I lived anywhere near this store is become a regular customer. Just about anything you could want.

Very cute place with lots of interesting items from Japan and also the typical hardware store stuff. I did have a very awkward exchange with one of the sales associates in which she would follow me and my fiance around and seemingly eavesdropped on our conversation. She would then proceed to explain the history, purpose or chemical make-up of the item we were looking at. This on its own is fine once ...but after 3 times providing unwanted information about items in the store as if she was Siri or Alexa, I was getting uncomfortable and annoyed. I whispered to my fiance that I didnt like her butting in and eavesdropping...she told me that she heard what I said, in an accusatory tone(confirmation of the creepy eavesdropping). I told her that was the precise reason I said what did. I think shes harmless and perhaps trying to impress people with her knowledge, but its super uncomfortable and frustrating. I hope her manager can have a heart to heart with her to help her learn boundaries and norms in interpersonal retail exchanges. I might not go back due to uncomfortableness which is not good for the stores bottom line.

Three stars for the relatively pricey hardware but four stars as a fun place to browse kitchenware and Japanese tools. Come here to walk off your lunch and maybe splurge on some tea accessories.

This is a good place to buy dishes, housewares, and some tool type things. They are small, though. I like the people there.

Awesome little Japanese hardware and nic knack store. They have all kinds of kitchen items, dishes, and cool finds.

Nice and reasonably priced selection of imported Japanese houseware.

Extremely rude and disrespectful Japanese woman downstairs. I had opened a box, that wasnt taped, to see what I would be getting if I bought it. These days, there sometimes have been issues with things after purchasing, by myself and many other people. Everyone knows this. The Japanese woman at this store shouted at me about it and took it from me and began repackaging it. I told her that I was in the middle of trying to buy the thing, and that she was interfering with that.

Always one of my favorite places to visit while in SFO - was not disappointed this time!

One of my favorite places for Japanese items of all kinds.

My 1st 1 star review, 1 star for customers service, because all the people who work there seem like hate customers, they dont want to deal with the people who want to spend money at there

Great selection of japanese hardware! Hand forged kitchen knifes!

Very helpful and friendly--

Not just hardware but also appliances, dishware, cutlery and so much more. I find something new every time I visit.

This happens to be the closest hardware store to me and I couldnt be happier. Not only can you find high quality hardware, tool sets and not to mention ADVICE from the helpful staff-- you could spend some serious time outfitting your kitchen with imported Japanese electronics, tea sets, woks and other knick knacks. In fact, not only is this a great hardware store that goes head to head with the Aces of the world, but it beats out most of the souvenir selection in the authentic Japan Town shops surrounding it. A must go.

Things you will never find elsewhere.

They have various tools in this hardware store

Nice shop, lots of tools

Rude staff