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We splurged 46 bucks on a supermarket “Lucky Cart”, bummed out we got exactly what we paid for

Koh Ruide Jan 14, 2019
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Read on and find out why our reporter may never buy lucky bags ever again.

Lucky bags or fukubukuro in Japan usually come packed with goods that are unknown to the buyer until opened. But even if they do not contain things that you might actually need, their attractive price tag makes it well worth the purchase, like the bargain Ikea lucky bag we bought some time ago.

Seeing her colleagues beaming brightly at their fukubukuro in the office, our Japanese-language reporter K. Masami hurried to nearby supermarket Aeon to catch the fortune wave that has gripped SoraNews24 staff.

She quickly bought one of the Lucky Carts, yet a strange feeling of disappointment began creeping into her mind when the cashier took each item out of the basket and scanned them like they would normally would instead of the entire package.

▼ “Wait, I’m being charged for each individual item?
What’s the point of advertising it as a Lucky Cart then?” wondered Masami.

Walking down the street, Masami realized that the cart looked nowhere near as nicely packaged as some of the other fukubukuro she had seen.

▼ It was a shame she couldn’t even take the cart or basket back home.

▼ Unloading things into her car, it felt like an everyday trip to the local supermarket.
Where was the fancy bag that should come with every fukubukuro?

Once home, she sat down and examined her loot from the 5,400 yen (US$49) Lucky Cart:

● Thickly-sliced baumkuchen
● Family-sized pack of onigiri crackers
● AGF special blend coffee
● S&B medium spice curry
● Hagoromo Foods sweet red bean soup
● Five boxes of Scott tissues
● 24-pack Asahi Dry beer cans

▼ It seems like a decent haul at least.

Masami knew her way around supermarkets and had a relatively good idea of how much products generally cost. A closer examination of the receipt confirmed her suspicions, revealing that none of the items in the Lucky Cart were any cheaper than usual. She felt a little cheated that the fukubukuro was just a collection of groceries; no surprises and no bargains.

▼ The most expensive item on the receipt,
the 4,406-yen case of Asahi Dry beer, caught her eye…

▼ …particularly because she could have purchased it separately and
gotten a packet of mochi for free, for exactly the same price!

▼ Still, the products were no more or less what she paid for,
and Masami did get something good out of the trip.

▼ It didn’t hurt to have more tissue boxes around the house!

▼ Masami would not usually buy baumkuchen on her own.
A perfect excuse to snack on these treats after dinner.

▼ More curry is never bad.

▼ The packet of red bean soup would save her on days when she craves something sweet.

▼ Nothing like a freshly brewed cup of coffee in the morning.

▼ The addictive onigiri crackers would be consumed in an instant.

It was not as bad as Masami initially thought, but she still could not shake off that disappointment of not finding more value in the Lucky Cart. Other carts may have discounts, but she was doubtful from the way the cashier scanned every bar code.

Vowing to stay away from fukubukuro and directly purchasing the products she actually wants from now on, she was glad that she at least did not end up like Mr. Sato and his depressing bag of junk.