A deal not worth breaking your New Year’s resolutions for.
2022 is already proving to be a controversial year in Japan, at least in terms of New Year’s fukubukuro “lucky bags” and how they’ve been stacking up compared to the versions released last year.
One bag that’s less impressive than last year’s is the one from doughnut chain Krispy Kreme. Our reporters have been purchasing these bags every year since 2016, but sadly, according to our team, this year’s was the chain’s most disappointing fukubukuro ever.
Why? Well, for starters, it contains pretty much the same stuff as previous years — 12 doughnuts, a bag, and a “doughnut passport“, which is a set of free vouchers for 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
▼ Granted, the bag wasn’t too bad…
▼ …and the doughnuts were pretty cute too, especially the one made in honour of this year’s Year of the Tiger.
The doughnut vouchers meant we’d be able to get twelve free doughnuts, so that wasn’t a bad deal either.
However, the main problem here was the price of the bag. In 2016 and 2017, a Krispy Kreme lucky bag containing pretty much the same goods would set you back 2,400 yen (US$20.74). From 2018-2020, the price for the annual New Year’s bundle went up to 3,000 yen. However, this year, the price for a Krispy Kreme fukubukuro shot up to a whopping 4,000 yen ($34.56), which is almost twice the price of the bags five years ago.
▼ The bag in last year’s cheaper fukubukuro (pictured) even seemed to be better quality than this year’s.
The 4,000 yen price tag might not be a problem if they included some better items inside the bag, but breaking down the cost of each item we received in this year’s bag, the doughnuts are priced at 2,160 yen, while the vouchers are equivalent to 2,064 yen. That means we came out of the deal only 224 yen better off, with a simple eco bag thrown in to sweeten the deal.
Sure it’s not a loss, but when rival chain Mister Donut has 4,800 yen worth of doughnut vouchers in their 3,300-yen lucky bags, the Krispy Kreme bag pales in comparison. Plus, with Mister Donut adding a whole heap of cute Pokémon goods to the mix, there’s no way we can recommend getting the Krispy Kreme bag instead…no matter how good their glazed doughnuts are.
Photos: ©SoraNews24
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