The Apple Store Line That Could Kill You. Literally. 

I will never complain about waiting in line ever again. Earlier this month, stores across Japan offered “lucky bags” (福袋 or fukubukuro), which typically contain an array of items at a discounted price. In the past, you didn’t know what the fukubukuro contained, but more recently, at many stores, you do.

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The Apple Store lucky bags are priced at 35,000 yen (around $360) and come in nifty backpacks with special commemorative tags. At Apple Stores, you don’t know what the lucky bag will contain, but as Togetter points out, a limited number of them had a MacBook Air as well as Beats Wireless and Apple TV, among other goodies, making the lucky bag a very, very good deal.

Even if you don’t get the laptop, the bag might have an iPad Air 2 or an iPad Mini 3 as the main prize. This year, the most “unlucky” of the bags come with an iPod Touch.

It’s a gamble, but that’s why these folks in Sapporo, Japan, lined up January 1 in front of the Apple Store.

The day started out optimistically enough, with a line of around eight people by about 4.30pm. The lucky bag was to go on sale January 2, so these folks planned to camp out over night.

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So much hope. So much optimism.

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Even if the temperature was -2 degrees celsius. Sapporo residents are certainly familiar to heavy snow and harsh winters, but still, sitting outside on the pavement in this weather is not for the faint of heart!

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When it started snowing that evening, Apple Store employees did bring cans of hot corn soup to give out to those waiting in line.

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And it kept snowing.

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And snowing.

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It got down to minus 8 degrees celsius.

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A security guard kept an eye on those waiting in line, presumably making sure everyone was alive, er, doing ok.

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Bundled up folks covered themselves with makeshift tents.

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As it got worse, some of those waiting joked on Twitter that waiting for the lucky bag might cost them their lives.

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Thankfully, it didn’t.

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I hope each and every one of these individuals got a Macbook Air.

But they didn’t. Here’s the contents of one brave individual’s lucky bag: an iPad Mini 3, among other items.

Picture: misor_cross

Picture: misor_cross

This isn’t a first. It snowed last year in Sapporo too, when people lined up at the Apple Store too. And next year, it will probably snow again. See you in 2016!