"Pain Points" System Launched at Major Supermarkets: Get 10% Off with a Quick Prick at Checkout

In response to worsening inflation, a major supermarket chain has launched a new service called “Pain Plus.” At checkout, when a clerk lightly pricks your arm with a special device, you receive a 10% discount on all items. Customers are rolling up their sleeves saying “Better than vegetable price hikes,” while staff are already adapting to a system where their hourly wage fluctuates based on their “pricking skills.”

“We truly wanted to understand our customers’ pain.” Mr. Suzuki (45), the marketing director of major supermarket chain “Happy Price,” explains with clear eyes. The company’s new discount service “Pain Plus,” introduced this month at 250 stores nationwide, has sent shockwaves through the industry for venturing into the final frontier of customer experience. Users simply present their arm to the dedicated “Prick Device” installed at the register. When the clerk presses the button, a needle as thin as a pen tip instantly stimulates the skin, and in exchange, 10% is deducted from the total purchase. Truly, modern alchemy.

Just days after the service launch, long lines of shoppers with rolled-up sleeves have formed in front of registers at participating stores. “Honestly, egg prices tripling hurts way more,” says Mrs. Sato (52), a housewife who uses the service five times a week. Pointing to her cart full of groceries, she proudly displays the colorful bandages on her arm like medals of honor. On social media, the hashtag “#TodaysPrick” is trending, with active sharing of information about less painful pricking techniques and the best times to find veteran staff.

This innovative system has also opened new horizons for employee working conditions. Staff are evaluated on three criteria: “pricking precision,” “customer satisfaction (measured by the quietness of screams),” and “efficiency,” with top performers receiving the title of “Pain Meister” along with hourly wage increases of up to 200 yen. Initially, there were voices of hesitation saying “pricking customers with needles?,” but after the incentive system was introduced, staff have been frantically practicing their pricking techniques. “The small ‘ungh’ from customers is my motivation,” says Mr. Tanaka (24), who became the inaugural Meister at the Shinjuku store in just his third year.

This unprecedented initiative has sparked both praise and criticism from experts. Professor Yamada (behavioral economics) at Toto University evaluates it as “a groundbreaking social experiment measuring the threshold where economic incentives outweigh physical pain,” while Chairman Ito of the Japan Ethics Society harshly criticizes it as “nothing less than selling human dignity for a 10% discount. This isn’t a discount; it’s peddling one’s soul.” The two debated heatedly on a TV panel discussion, reportedly reaching reconciliation when the moderator offered up their own arm.

The government isn’t standing by either. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has established an “Emergency Investigation Office for the Correlation Between Citizens’ Pain Tolerance and Household Budget Improvement.” Rumors suggest competitors are considering counter-services like “Strike Price” (20% off if you get hit) and “Shout Discount” (half off if you scream loudly), and the battle over consumers’ wallets and bodies is only set to intensify.

Financial pain or arm pain? At the edge of this ultimate choice thrust upon modern humans, the dully gleaming needle tip beside the register quietly awaits our answer. When did our daily lives become this thrilling?

Stakeholder Comments

• Housewife (47): “Compared to the price surge of a single cabbage, this prick is mercy.”
• Pain Meister Tanaka (24): “The grateful groans I receive from customers are my greatest reward.”
• Development Director: “Our DX stands for ‘Daring x Painful.’ True transformation that comes with pain.”
• Ethicist: “Quite interesting from a utilitarian perspective. The greatest happiness for the greatest number is being achieved with minimal pain.”
• Prick Device-kun (personified): “My tip is actually quite delicate. Please handle me gently.”
• Rival store manager: “W-we offer 5x points with smiles and sincerity! (while rubbing arm)”
• MHLW bureaucrat: “New indicators will be needed for the correlation between public health impacts and Engel coefficients.”
• Pain (as a concept): “I was wondering why demand has been so high lately… So I’ve become a substitute for point cards.”
• Elementary schooler: “On days mom goes to the supermarket, she puts on a badge of courage (bandage) on her arm.”
• Wallet (personified): “Better than losing my contents, but hearing my owner’s groans… it pains my heart…”

International Expressions

Haiku

• Winter arm / A cheap prick / Buying radish
• Band-aids worn / As badges of honor / Called savings
• Checkout queue / Everyone rolling up / Their sleeves
• December wind / Needle pain and / Discount tags
• Pain shared / Wallet, arm, and / Supermarket
• Endure it / The counsel of / Ten percent
• One needle / Makes the cabbage / Lighter to bear
• Does this pain / Know or not know / Rising prices
• Rolling sleeves / Steeling resolve / December here
• Aching arm / Setting sun on way home / Stings, dammit

Kanji / Chinese Characters

物価高騰 大手店 新割引 会計時 腕刺 全品割引 利用者歓迎 店員技術向上

Emoji

🛒➡️🧾➡️💪💉➡️-🔟%➡️😄👛✨

Onomatopoeia

Buzz buzz… Beep, beep… Prick! Ungh… Silence… Beep. Jingle jangle… Smile.

SNS

• #PainPoints
• #TodaysPrick
• Cashier lady was a goddess with that technique
• #LimitsOfSavingHacks
• Bandage collection is thriving
• Physical pain over economic DV
• #HappyPrice
• Can’t go back to normal shopping anymore
• My household’s Engel coefficient, saved by needles
• #PainIntoPower