Thousands of people queued for hours on Monday outside a luxury jeweler in Tokyo that was offering an unusual promotion to ease the recession blues — a giveaway of 5,000 free diamonds.
A queue stretched for several city blocks from early morning as people waited for Mauboussin in the upmarket Ginza district to open at 9am, eager to get one of the 0.1 carat rocks, worth about 5,000 yen (NT$1,700) each.
Atsuko Aoki, 65, said she and her retired husband arrived at 6:00am to get one of the precious stones being offered as a special promotion for the jeweler’s recently-opened Japanese flagship store.
“I left my husband standing in line and walked around Ginza,” she said.
The free offer was part of a “bright campaign to drive away the recession,” with the company also offering to set the diamonds in rings and necklaces for customers who want to pay for the jewelry.
However, the morning’s happy mood turned sour for some when it became clear that more than 5,000 people had shown up and many would miss out, with some customers berating shop staff about the slow pace of the queue.(AFP)
數千名民眾上週一在東京某高級珠寶店外大排長龍了數個鐘頭，這間珠寶店為了對抗經濟衰退，特別舉辦了一個促銷活動──免費贈送五千顆鑽石。
高級商店林立的銀座區一早就出現排隊等待「夢寶星」上午九點開門營業的民眾，長長人龍綿延了數個街口，都是為了領取每顆價值約五千日圓（新台幣一千七百元）的零點一克拉鑽石。
六十五歲的青木溫子（音譯）說，她和退休的先生早上六點就到這間日本新開幕的夢寶星旗艦店來排隊，希望能得到促銷活動贈送的貴重寶石。
她說：「我讓我先生留在那裡排隊，自己則在銀座四處逛逛。」
這個免費贈送鑽石的活動是該公司「對抗低迷景氣的燦爛活動」之一，該公司也提供鑽石戒指和項鍊套組供民眾選購。
然而，早上歡愉的氣氛在排隊民眾明顯超過五千人、許多人可能因此向隅後變了調，部分民眾開始不耐煩，有些消費者甚至為了隊伍前進速度太慢而斥責店員。（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）
1. recession n.
經濟衰退 (jing1 ji4 shuai1 tui4)
例: Thousands of jobs have been lost since the recession started.
(自從這波經濟衰退以來，已經減少了數千個工作機會。)
2. eager adj.
渴望的 (ke3 wang4 de5)
例: The students were eager to find out who their new geography teacher would be.
(學生們急切的想要知道誰會是他們的新地理老師。)
3. flagship n.
旗艦 (qi2 jian4)
例: The journalists were shown around our flagship store.
(我們帶記者在我們的旗艦店內四處參觀。)
4. pace n.
速度 (su4 du4)，進度 (jin4 du4)
例: I’m not sure if you should join this class because the pace is much faster than you’re used to.
(我不確定你是否應該轉入這一班，因為這班的進度比你之前上的那班快多了。)
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