Lucky Bag Frenzy

ZHANG:
It was shopping madness in Japan today. Thousands of shoppers lined up in front of department and retail stores across the country to get their hands on the traditional New Year special grab bags called "Lucky Bags."

STORY:
Shoppers rushed inside the Mitsukoshi department store in the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo where store workers, dressed as traditional Japanese New Year characters such as lions and god of good fortunes, encouraged the buying frenzy.

Store representatives estimated over 20,000 "Lucky Bags" were snapped up by eager shoppers.

The popular bags are priced between 10 thousand yen ( $100 USD) and 30 thousand yen ($300 USD) and are often filled with fashion items for a substantial discount.

[Yukiko Yamanashi, Businesswoman]:
"Lucky bags are such a huge bargain, I don't even know why some people aren't buying it! Sometimes you can buy clothes worth a 100 thousand yen or $1000 U.S. dollars for just 10 thousand yen or $100 U.S. dollars and everything from coats to shirts are included in the bag."

Still, many others sought to banish depressing thoughts of recession.

[Eiichi Kakegawa, Businessman]:
"Though the economy is worsening, I wanted to buy some lucky bags because it is sold at a discounted price. I also wanted to get some luck in this recession."

Bags are completely sealed and most stores do not say what is included in their lucky bags.

[Hisayo Kuwabara, Lucky Bag Buyer]:
"There's this excitement before you open your bag, then comes the surprise and some degree of disappointment, but most of the time I'm happy with what I got."

[Takashi Masuko, Lucky Bags Operation Dir.]:
"People tend to buy more Lucky Bags during recession. We've been preparing for this day since last August and since we were expecting some recession ahead, we changed the volume and items of our lucky bags to better satisfy our customers at times like this."

Economic signs ahead are not looking all that prosperous. Several companies have cut their outlooks as they expect another gloomy year. And the Japanese government has also warned its people they will face an "unprecedented crisis."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ntd
• NTDTV
• news
• Japan
• Tokyo
• New
• Year
• Lucky
• Bag
• Frenzy
• Mitsukoshi
• Ginza
• economy
• recession

[IEatCows]

i need one. lets replace black friday haha jk