Collecting Pokémon Bread stickers has recently become a popular hot trend in South Korea. You’ve undoubtedly seen BTS RM on Instagram, with his adorable photo of collecting Pokémon stickers. There is a fever for collecting Pokemon Bread stickers in South Korea at the moment.
Let’s learn more about this exciting fad together!!!
What is going on?
The Origin of Pokemon Bread
In 1998, Samlip collaborated with Pokemon animation to create bread for convenience shops. Within the package, those loaves came with Pokemon character stickers. At the time, Pokemon was still on Korean television, and children were passionate about it.
Children were captivated by collecting Pokemon stickers. The Pokemon stickers in the bread packaging were randomized. Kids were obsessed with these Pokémon bread to get their beloved Pokemon characters or more variety of Pokemon characters stickers.
The craze began in 1998 and continued until early 2000. Then, in 2006, the Pokemon anime series concluded and bread sales went dormant for 16 years. That fad has vanished from people’s minds.
Pokemon stickers are back!
Overjoyed Kidults
On February 24, 2022, 5 kinds of Pokemon Bread containing randomly 159 kinds of stickers, were re-released.
Happy Scream!!! ????
So in Korea, the generation MZ, who were children 16 years ago, are now adults and are purchasing stickers with tremendous purchasing power.
Collecting all 159 distinct stickers and childhood memories was added to the joy of collecting them, so the Korean MZ generation began hunting Pokemon bread just like they do while playing Pokemon Go. Bread is being treated as a freebie of the Pokemon sticker. The main character has changed. Now the main character is the Pokemon sticker, not bread.
The children at that time are now in their 20s and 30s. They have deep pockets, so they no longer need to ask their parents for buying bread. They may even drive vehicles to chase delivery trucks at dawn to collect bread(actually for collecting stickers).
Out of Stock Crisis BUT Stores That Overcome It With Fun
As soon as Pokemon Bread is displayed, the long-awaited collectors swept it away and it was out of stock within a few minutes.
Every customer who walks into the convenience store inquires about Pokemon bread, so convenience stores overcome it with fun. Convenience stores are a hot topic because they provide adorable and entertaining out-of-stock announcements.
On Instagram, you can find many artistic and fun sold-out signs of convenience stores.
There are many interesting comments about this phenomenon.
- ‘It seems like all the staff at the convenience store are artists. Why are you so good at drawing?!’
- ‘Aren’t convenience stores selecting employees in the order of their art skills?’
- ‘I want to collect convenience store sold-out signs than Pokemon stickers.’ etc
Why Not Supply A Lot?
Somewhere Between Sales Gimmicks And Marketing Skills
RM posted on Instagram, ‘Please sell more ????’. This represents the heart of the Korean MZ generation like RM.
We simply think that if a company creates a large number of items, it will generate a lot of money. However, they don’t. When there is scarcity, consumers become more interested in collecting. Collectors may criticize the firm for limiting the quantity. But that is also part of the fun of collecting. It’s simply part of marketing; sadly, it can’t be helped. ???? ????
I used to go into a convenience store and look for it, but it was always out of stock, so I couldn’t find one; however, just looking at what my friends bought makes me feel like I’m back in childhood again and it’s enjoyable.
I’ll come back with another fun and hot news in Korea.
Thank you for reading 🙂 ✨
PS. Last week I had a successful Pokemon Bread Hunt. Wow! I went to a convenience store in the morning to buy coffee and got ONE 🙂 ????
