This term refers to making a surprise purchase. Buyers can find a mysterious item, primarily charms, toys or souvenirs upon opening the bags.
The unboxing toys blind bag trend originated from Japan where various stores in the country made the solution to sell inventories hidden inside blind bags or blind boxes to stimulate demand by creating customer curiosity. From Japan, the shopping trend has spread to many other countries, including Vietnam.
According to statistics from the Metric e-commerce data platform, from the beginning of July to the end of September 2024, the total revenue of 539 stores selling "blind bags", "lucky bags" and "blind boxes" on five major e-commerce platforms, comprising Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, TikTok shop reached about VND4.6 billion (US$182,000).
Each “blind box” was traded from a few thousand Vietnamese dongs to under one million Vietnamese dongs on social media. The prices of mystery bags are pretty cheap so the buyers have not hesitated to order immediatedly.
Tran Ngoc Thanh Phuong, a 24-year-old employee residing in Tan Phu Ward, Ho Chi Minh City was surprised as she spent VND2 million (US$79) on buying “blind bags”.
Thanh Phuong shared that whenever she saw a “blind bag” on social media, she desired to order them to find a pink doll or a brown duck in her collection. When she had enough charms for her collection, she took a picture to show her friend and stored them in a corner for a long time.
The unpacking blind bags is a type of betting on one’s luck or misfortune at a moment, but the boxes and items from games left a significant amount of plastic waste in the environment.
Many young people who pursue a green and sustainable lifestyle as well as experts in the environmental field are concerned with a negative environmental aspect of games.
