Department stores offer lucky bags for New Year
TOKYO —
Major Japanese department stores are vigorously promoting ‘‘lucky bags’’ to start the new year with a fresh campaign to get customers to loosen their purse strings amid the nation’s economic slowdown.
‘‘Practical things will likely gain popularity,’’ said an official at Daimaru Inc, which will prepare lucky bags with products that reflect prize-winning catchphrases, such as ‘‘Arafour,’’ referring to women of around 40 and ‘‘Konkatsu,’’ or activities having to do with getting married.
The head store of Seibu Department Stores Ltd in Ikebukuro will put on sale a lucky bag containing five shirts for a price of 5,000 yen under the slogan, ‘‘Lucky bag-buying a week at the same time.’’ It is also preparing neckties and socks.
‘‘We hope these things will be helpful to our customers,’’ said a Seibu Department spokesperson.
To coincide with the Year of the Ox in 2009, Takashimaya Co will have a bag containing Miyazaki beef, vegetables and fruit each month for six months to help consumers get a taste of luxury while cutting back on spending.
Miyazaki beef will total 6 kilograms over six months and is priced at 100,000 yen. But the sale price is 11,290 yen—in Japanese, a number able to be pronounced as a play on words meaning ‘‘good meat.’’
Daimaru’s Umeda store in Osaka is accepting reservations for a lucky bag of popular brand clothing priced at one-fourth to one-fifth the usual price. It is part of a strategy to help customers avoid long lines on New Year’s Day.
Many department stores are targeting single women in the ‘‘Arafour’’ generation said to be wealthy.
This is an articles of Japanese lucky bags.
