When you open the door, you’re not just coming home, but stepping into a world of awesome bargains and services that we sometimes overlook.
Have you ever stopped and thought about how awesome your home is?
That might seem like an oddly prescient claim, considering the fact that I haven’t recently been in most of your homes (statistically, I could only be hiding under the living room table of one person reading this at any moment). But trust me, in their own, often forgotten ways, our homes are awesome, and ironically a great way to remind yourself of that is to think of you home like it’s a store.
When Japanese Twitter user @mansooon opens his front door, he isn’t greeted by the heavy silence of a dark and empty entryway. Instead, he’s set up a device that detects when the door has been opened and greets him like he’s a valued customer at a supermarket, complete with a rundown of the day’s amazing special offers!
His recorded message says:
“Thank you for coming home again today! We’re currently holding our ‘Welcome Home in the Summer’ promotion.
In the kitchen area, yesterday’s leftovers, stir-fried bean sprouts seasoned with salt and pepper, are being offered at an incredible 100-percent discount. There’s yours for free! For free!
In the bathroom area, our popular bathtub can now be enjoyed for only the cost of water and gas!
Don’t miss out on these great deals!”
When you stop and think about it, simple as they may be, it’d be pretty nice if you went grocery shopping and were given a premade vegetable dish for free, or went to one of Japan’s relaxing bathhouses and could take a soak for nothing more than the cost of filling the tub and heating the water, with no profit factor built in. Making the service sector factor feel even more tangible is that the device (called Yobikomi-kun) is playing a jingle often heard in Japanese supermarkets, which set up machines like this to draw in customers and inform them of what’s on sale.
“Ever since I put this in my entryway, coming home feels fun,” tweeted @mansooon, whose innovative Yobikomi-kun use inspired others to comment:
“It’s like there’s a sale going on when you get home.”
“Yep, my bathtub is really popular too!”
“If you used a recording from your favorite voice actress, it’d make you want to rush home right after work.”
“I love how the camera shakes up and down in joy at the end of the video.”
“I want one of these.”
If that last comment matches what you’re thinking, Yobikomi-kun can be purchased online from retailers including Amazon and Rakuten, though not all models include the flashing LED lights of @mansooon’s version. Given the specific nature of your home’s special services and offers, you’ll have to record the narration yourself, but as @mansooon’s 30-second effort shows, it shouldn’t take long to lay down a morale-boosting monologue for when you get home at the end of the day. And if getting out the door at the start of the day is also a problem, there’s a clever solution for that too.
Source: Twitter/@mansooon via Jin
Follow Casey on Twitter, where today his home is offering a free marathon screening of classic anime Patlabor in the living room theater.