As stated above, they were similar to typical Japanese bikes of the era. The bike shop called Bicycle Habitat in NYC sold many of them. In NYC, people don't require big brands as they do elsewhere. Bikes (and other things) can make it alone on quality and a shop's recommendation.

Since it was a typical Japanese bike, it was far above the quality of department store bike quality. Back then, department store bikes were much worse than bike shop bikes. That gap has narrowed a bit lately.