Lucky Bags Boost Traffic At Japanese Apple Stores [Apple Gets In On Japanese Retail Tradition With "Lucky Bags", Sees Foot Traffic Climb Impressively]

The Japanese, reportedly, have a tradition known as the ?lucky bag?, a tradition perennially done every New Year?s Day. And this year, the folks out at Apple decided that they were going to get in on the lucky bag fun by offering up one of their own. And at last report, man, did it ever work out for them.

Lucky bags (also called fukubukuro, thanks to Wikipedia for that one), basically, allow retailers to throw together a bag of stuff, usually at random from whatever they have in stock, and offer it up for sale, generally at a discount. So while you don?t know specifically what will be in your lucky bag, you?ll get a good mix of products, and you?ll get said mix likely for a little less than you would have paid for it ordinarily. Some lucky bags contain really, really deep discounting?some lucky bags can contain big-ticket items, part of what keeps people coming in for them (some eBay auctions work on this principle)?and that can get people very interested.

Apple, meanwhile, offered up a standard mix of items?an iPod Touch in the eight gig variety, headphones, cases and the like?though they did offer, in a few backs, MacBook Air laptops and iPad 2 tablets. In fact, the lucky bags at the Fukuoka Tenjin Apple store (one of seven in Apple?s Japanese retail portfolio, at last report) was so well-received that there was a line around the block to lay hands on one, despite the fact that they were charging 33,000 yen apiece, which is roughly $428 US.

This isn?t the first time Apple?s gone in with the lucky bag concept, either; reportedly, the San Francisco store busted out the lucky bags for their big opening back in 2004, offering up $250 bags containing a variety of devices and software.

A pretty clever idea, I?d say, and one I?d certainly like to see more retailers around here try. It is kind of fun to wonder just what, exactly, will be in your lucky bag, a little post-Christmas surprise, but considering that people probably spent most of their cash on Christmas, a New Year?s lucky bag may not go over so well. A first day of summer lucky bag, now, that might have some takers.

But what do you guys think? Would you go to the store and buy a random bag for any amount, filled with some kind of stuff from your favorite retailer? Or do you want to know what you?re buying when you want to buy it? Either way, we look forward to hearing from you, and the comments section below is just the place to do it!

Source: http://nexus404.com/Blog/2012/01/02/lucky-bags-boost-traffic-at-japanese-apple-stores-apple-gets-in-on-japanese-retail-tradition-with-lucky-bags-sees-foot-traffic-climb-impressively/

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