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Japan's Apple Stores continue Lucky Bag tradition

by Dave Caolo Jan 1st 2010 at 2:00PM

Fukubukuro, or "Mystery Bag," is a Japanese New Year's Day tradition during which merchants sell sealed bags of various items at a substantial discount, often as high as 50%. Shoppers may get some great deals on the contents of these bags - even if they don't know what exactly they're buying. Japanese Apple Stores have participated since 2005. Once again, this year, they're offering mystery bags to Japanese Apple Store customers.

Stores will begin selling a limited number of Lucky Bags for the equivalent of $380US on January 2nd. But the fun doesn't end there. Each store will offer workshops on photography, video-making and presentations to kids aged eight to 12-years-old. Adults can share in the fun too, as a contest will be held to find the best New Year's greeting card created on a Mac. All contest participants will receive a small gift.

If you attend, let us know. Last year, a reader received an 8 GB iPod touch, a Nike iPod sensor and armband, a Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere2 speaker set, a cool, re-useable bag (above), a commemorative T-shirt and a 2009 calendar for the approximate equivalent of $384US. Shoppers began to line up at midnight the day before in 2009, so hop to it. Those lines aren't going to get any shorter.

Update: The sale has begun. Here's what one shopper received.

[Via ifoAppleStore]

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Fukubukuro, or "Mystery Bag," is a Japanese New Year's Day tradition during which merchants sell sealed bags of various items at a...
 

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Justin

I am the reader in the post that did get a lucky bag last year. Luckily, I decided to sit out on this one or I would have got a bunch of overlapping accessories. And I needed to save money for the coming tablet =)

For anyone interested, I posted the list of items you'd get in the lucky bag - http://www.shinywhitegadgets.com/2010/01/2010-lucky-bag-in-japan.html

January 04 2010 at 3:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
umijin

I was in line for it at the Ginza - got on the first train out and was about three blocks back at 6:20 am. Apple employees came around 7:30 to tell us we were SOL and no bags for us. They gave us a consolation prize - an extra 10% off items (including computers) that were 10% off. But that's not what I came for - out of my price range. They also gave the same deal to people that showed up by 8-830am, so my efforts at getting there early were in vain.

If there were 38,000 lucky bags, they couldn't have given away more than a few thousand at this store. I was disappointed and p.o.'d. They should let us know how many at each store - or stop wasting our time. I suppose I could have sat out all night like some folks, but it was pretty damn cold for Tokyo.

January 02 2010 at 12:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sb_one

This guy got the jackpot:

http://twitter.com/NOSxxx/status/7281906162

January 01 2010 at 8:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
magicjames92

They should do this in america. People lining up to pay $380 on a bag of random stuff? The companies should be all over that!

January 01 2010 at 6:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BobEvers

One of the reasons that it is a lucky bag is that some contain value that is significantly higher than the selling price (it is never lower).
For example last year in some apple bags were macbooks

January 01 2010 at 6:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to BobEvers's comment
umijin

They can't do it in the US, or there would be violence.

Remember the time walmart or some other US retailer offered some huge discounted electronics, and people fought each other to get inside? You could expect the same for any Apple Lucky bag promotion where the seats are limited, so to speak.

January 03 2010 at 12:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
huphtur

Incase produced the bag for the 2010 Japan Lucky Bag

January 01 2010 at 6:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adrian

That example is a 1% saving on stuff that you might not actually need. A bit less than the 50% the article is talking about...

January 01 2010 at 3:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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