Hasta La Gadget!

Japan is very savvy when it comes to umbrellas. Whenever it’s a rainy day shops, restaurants and hotels will usually have a stand of long plastic bags at the entrance, which visitors take and put over their wet umbrellas. The most sophisticated of these is probably the Kasapon dispenser: slide in your umbrella and it automatically slips on a bag. (Short umbrellas can be tricky but apparently there are dispensers especially for them too!)

During our recent visit to RetailTech 2010 we saw a great Kasapon dispenser which also had a “umbrella bag collection machine” (傘袋回収機). Certainly taking the now-dripping plastic bag off your umbrella when you want to leave the store can be an unpleasant experience, but here you just put your umbrella into the hole and when you pull it back up the slip is magically gone.

There is no electricity involved, just good old springs and levers, and the dispensers can store literally hundreds of the plastic bags. This kind of smooth tool can really change your retail experience, which is usually harried and uncomfortable enough on a rainy day.

These sets (dispenser and bag disposal unit) don’t come cheap, though: one model we looked at costs 165,900 JPY ($1,800)!