Posted on 08/17/2025 4:55:29 AM PDT by xp38
Tokyo — McDonald's Japan has canceled a Happy Meal campaign that came with coveted Pokemon cards, apologizing after resellers rushed to buy the meals and then discarded the food, leaving trash outside stores. The meals, called Happy Sets in Japan, were meant for children. They came with a toy, such as a tiny plastic Pikachu, and a Pokemon card. They sold out in a day, according to Japanese media reports. Mounds of wasted food were found near the stores.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Chinese tourists. The locusts of the travel world.
Who could have seen that coming, anyone old enough to remember Beanie Babies in the US, that’s who.
I knew there was more to the story...
https://kotaku.com/mcdonalds-pokemon-tcg-happy-meal-chaos-2000616843
Per the above...
“...It seems scalpers were a large part of the problem, with individual McDonald’s stores not helping by failing to stick to a five-meals-per-person rule...”
Love to know how that happened in Japan...
Scalpers weren’t the only problem, were they...
And this happened back in May, SSDD but with different toys...
https://www.marketing-interactive.com/mcdonald-s-japan-cancels-3rd-wave-of-chiikawa-meal-sets
Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch Dolls. My Dad stood in line for hours to get a CPD for my little sister.
Scalpers are always a factor with children’s IP
I have many Japanese friends both in JP and local. That society has a big problem with what I believe is arrested development. Not to excuse the same in the US, but the Japanese seem to be proud of never leaving childhood. I think it comes from many generations of cradle-to-grave socialized society. My opinion only.
Yeah I was shaking my head back then too. The story itself is a bit puzzling too. The stuff sells out in a day and is then cancelled? I assume they had longer plans for it and cancelled that.
My son made out like a bandit on those, he sold at the right time. Knew what they were all worth, more than made back the purchase price of the whole pile, still had a bit bin of leftovers. He was maybe 10 or 11.
FWIW, I think this is more about plain old greed.
What surprises me is rule-breaking, not by the scalpers but by the McDonald’s employees.
And the fact that the problems that occurred with the first promotion were allowed to continue during the second.
One shop I worked in back in the 90s, my supervisor was into collecting any kind of sports cards, and also Pokémon. That spilled over to a few of us. I had a Pokémon plastic ball, it was red and white, with a character inside. I don’t remember which.
Pokemon and grownups? Seriously! They don’t sound grown up to me.
“This is why we can’t have nice things.”
There’s also the problem of 120 million people in a land mass about the size of Montana. That’s a lot of people with no place to stretch out.
I wouldn’t bet against you.
I was just in Japan back in April. Leaving trash somewhere inappropriate would be very un-Japanese.
Mostly concentrated in cities. Rural depopulation there is a real thing.
At all.
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