Apple Fans, Do You Feel Lucky?

By Leander Kahney Feb. 27, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- To celebrate the grand opening of Apple Computer's new Union Square store in San Francisco, 200 shoppers will be given a dubious opportunity -- spend $250 for the chance to win a new iPod mini.

On Saturday morning, the first few hundred people through the door will have a chance to buy a $250 "lucky bag," which may or may not contain one of the company's popular, just-released miniature music players.

Lucky bags are a shopping craze imported from Japan where, on New Year's Day, many stores offer these bags full of surprise items, explained Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of retail, during a press tour of the store Thursday.

He said Apple sold them recently at its Tokyo store, and the concept proved so popular the company decided to bring the idea to San Francisco.

Priced at $250, nearly the same price as the iPod mini itself, the lucky bags contain seven or eight items worth a total of $600 to $1,000, Johnson said.

"We've got a really popular product that sells for $249," he said, referring to the new music player, which went on sale last weekend. "So some of them might have a nice surprise."

Holding up one of the mysterious black bags, which looked like a bank robber's swag sack, Johnson fielded more questions about the gimmick than even the store's magnificent glass staircase.

According to reports, lucky bags, or fukubukuro, attract tens of thousands of consumers to Japan's New Year's Day sales. One store alone claimed 25,000 lucky bag shoppers, and there are reports of injuries during lucky bag stampedes.

The Disinfotainment blog has video of a near riot as 16,000 young women storm a popular Tokyo clothes store, a scene described as "materialism run amok."

At the Apple store, Johnson failed to explain why anyone who wants an iPod mini would spend the exact purchase price on a grab bag that had a good chance of not containing one.

In Japan, a fukubukuro purchased at the Apple store by shopper Keita Suyama contained six items, including an iSight camera, a Bluetooth USB adaptor, Bluetooth mouse, Apple's Keynote presentation software, a package for the .Mac online services and a 10 percent discount card for the store. The bag cost 27,000 yen (about $250) and Apple claimed the goods were worth 62,000 yen ($570).

To assuage any possible disappointment, the first 2,000 people inside the San Francisco store Saturday morning will get a free T-shirt. Apple must expect a monster crowd; it normally gives out only 1,000 shirts, according to Gary Allen, who runs the ifoAppleStore website. Allen plans to wait outside Friday night so he can be first in line.

Once inside the store, visitors will see a grand glass staircase located beneath a stunning skylight.

Upstairs, the red velvet seats in a large theater are the same as those at an auditorium at Pixar Animation Studios in nearby Emeryville, California. According to Johnson, they were selected by Steve Jobs, the CEO of both companies, himself.

Next to the theater is the Internet cafe, which has two long lines of iMacs but no coffee or cakes. The cafe is open for visitors to surf the Net, check e-mail or videoconference for free, Johnson said. On the other side of the store is a "genius bar," a long wooden counter for support staffed by 12 resident "Mac geniuses," who offer help, advice and repairs.

The store already has a busy roster of product demos, seminars and presentations, including several by local musicians, designers and producers in film and video.

Every Wednesday is "pro day," Johnson said, and every Tuesday evening a "school night," where kids get to show off computer projects. Every evening there will be a special workshop for "switchers" -- PC users interested in switching to the Mac.

"We're here to sell a lot of computers and iPods, but the way to do that is to be a great part of the community," Johnson said. "We want people to be here."

To that end, Johnson said, the store is a place not just to shop but a place to hang out and learn.

"People really love our stores because we are more than a store ... we are a place to belong," he said.