Japan: Queuing for scarcity in a land of contradictions

IT’S 8.30am on the dot last Wednesday in Kawasaki, an industrial city in the greater Tokyo area. Half an hour before the Apple Store opens, and already an orderly, curiously-constituted queue of a dozen or so people has formed outside the front door.

- ANDILE MASUKU

My wife Sithabiso and I join behind what appears to be a homeless man, standing against the shop’s minimalist glass shopfront in the shadow of Toshiba’s looming new global headquarters.

We're all here hoping to cop one of the latest iPhone 17 devices that Apple has taken to drip-releasing for sale. Limited pre-orders and tiny batches made available at their stores to anyone willing to show up early every morning. Pre-order customers need to wait at least two weeks. Want it sooner? Rise early, join the queue, and wish for the best.

Truth be told, neither Sithabiso nor I are inclined to queue for hyped consumer goods, but her old iPhone went on the blink just days before we landed in Japan, and there's a significant cost saving buying the device here compared to back home. We had to try our luck.

Most coveted are the new flagship iPhone 17 Pro models which, word on the street suggests, only about 10 to 20 drop per store daily. Odds improve for anyone seeking an entry-level iPhone 17 model (256GB or 512GB) as roughly 40 are said to be made available per shop every day. So, we're hopeful.

The Pro models were claimed by the first few people in queue. Ahead of us, a chatty Greek cybersecurity specialist who’s made Tokyo his home for 12 years had been queuing for a 17 Pro three days running, was again denied his prize.

He explained the dynamics with weary expertise.

Earlier, he'd casually mentioned that he was first cousin of the late South African rapper Costa Titch (real name Constantinos Tsobanoglou), who tragically died after collapsing whilst performing at Ultra South Africa in Johannesburg in March 2023. One of those small-world moments.

Here we were: two Zimbos, a Greek expat with South African musical ties, and dozens of locals, all united in pursuit of rectangles of engineered desire.