With a simple wish to start your year off with some tasty donuts, Krispy Kreme delivers big in this year’s bag.

It’s been another hard year for the donut industry in Japan. The nation has been in the grip of a prolonged donut war that has still to see a clear winner emerge. Ever since major convenience stores have made an aggressive attempt on the market, the whole thing has become diluted, causing profit losses all over.

Krispy Kreme is no exception. After making a huge initial splash in Japan, we assume the American donut chain, like all the others, is now trying to find that delicate balance between cost cutting and aggressive marketing to ride it out until the convenience stores decide to abandon their donut ambitions once and for all.

So, in this year’s lucky bag offering we wouldn’t be surprised to find that austerity has taken over, but when our writer Sachi Ojiya picked one up for 3,000 yen (US$27) she couldn’t have been happier with what she found!

Krispy Kreme Donuts Lucky Bag

  • 12 donuts
  • Donut Passport, good for another 12 donuts of your choice
  • Thermal bag
  • Notebook

According to Krispy Kreme, the Rollbahn brand notebooks were brought back from a previous year’s Lucky Bag due to popular demand.

Insulated bags are certainly the item of 2018, popping up all over Lucky Bags this year, and Krispy Kreme is in on the trend too!

But the best part of their 2018 offering is the array of donuts. Sachi has been covering the Krispy Kreme bags for four years now and every other time she had just gotten a box of plain glazed donuts. However, this year she got four Plain Glazed plus two Creamy Cheese, two Chocolate Sprinkle and four specialty flavors.

▼ 2017

▼ 2018

To celebrate the Year of the Dog there are two dog-faced donuts with cookies ears called the Lucky Happy Caramel.

And for those who aren’t into the astrological aspect of the holiday there is the simple yet elegant Lucky Strawberry Ring with tiny flakes of gold for that sophisticated donut experience.

And hey, if you’re still not satisfied with those, then Krispy Kreme is also giving a Donut Passport which will give you an additional 12 donuts of your choice.

While the price for this haul had gone up by 600 yen ($5) from previous years, the value of contents has also increased by 1,000 yen ($9), making this their most cost-effective Lucky Bag yet!

It certainly seems that Krispy Kreme is kicking off 2018 in celebratory fashion, which may suggest an end to the donut war is finally nearing. In my own field research, convenience stores’ stocks of donuts have been shrinking everywhere day by day.

Having personally lost a neighborhood Mister Donut in 2017, this is truly encouraging news. Hopefully this year may bring an era to Japan wherein my children need not worry if they can have access to animal shaped donuts or not.

Photos　©SoraNews24
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