Attendees at the Pokemon Center pop-up for Worlds 2024 are leaving with empty hands and a sense of disappointment, as the shelves have been cleared of all available merchandise by eager fans.
Numerous competitors, influencers, and enthusiasts are gathering in Honolulu, Hawaii for the highly anticipated 2024 Pokemon World Championships, taking place on August 16 – 18. This event will showcase the top players of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Pokemon Go, and the Trading Card Game as they battle to claim the title of being the ultimate champion.
Just as in previous years, Pokemon Worlds 2024 features not only large arenas for competitors to battle in, but also a massive Pokemon Center. This center is stocked with unique merchandise and thrilling items that are available for any attendees to purchase.
Despite the difficulty, obtaining any merchandise may prove to be a challenge as enthusiastic attendees are quickly snatching up everything on the shelves, leaving little for others to purchase.
The Pokemon Center employs a ticket system in order to manage the flow of traffic. This means that instead of customers all arriving at once, they are assigned specific timeslots and must wait in a queue until their designated time. However, those who are fortunate enough to secure early timeslots are leaving limited options for those who arrive later.
After seeing photos of empty shelves at the Pokemon Center in Honolulu, it was clear that the store had been completely cleared of merchandise. X user SimplyAvgGamer shared a picture and commented that it accurately depicted the current state of the store. Some customers were left with nothing to purchase due to the lack of merchandise.
current state of the pokemon center pic.twitter.com/xYZxYKX1qu
— jim. (lives in) hawaii. 🌺 (@SimplyAvgGamer) August 15, 2024
Supporting this statement, another user, randumbelen, shared their personal encounter on their Twitter account (https://x.com/randumbelen/status/1823944152230584441), revealing that they arrived at the Pokemon Center at 2 PM only to find that popular items such as lanyards, ukuleles, backpacks, skateboards, sleeves, deckboxes, and playmats were already sold out.
A different user shared a fellow fan’s “Pokemon Center Haul”, expressing how the post made them feel “extremely disappointed”to see that the Pokemon Center had sold out of exclusive merchandise even before the start of Worlds.
After the large purchase, one individual criticized the buyer for their excessive acquisition of items such as deck boxes, labeling it as “pure greed”. Another person then proceeded to share a link to the items being sold on eBay. They pointed out that while the deck boxes have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $12.99, the eBay listing had a starting price of $72.99.
this makes me so sad. worlds hasn’t even STARTED and i’ve seen pics of the pokemon center WIPED OUT of all the exclusive merch, meanwhile this guy is rocking 15+ deck boxes that will probably be resold for astronomical prices. this is just selfish: / https://t.co/KxlcAph5t1
— sunnie 🌻 (@sunniettv) August 15, 2024
A participant known as Gazoney posted on X, stating that this was their 6th World Championships they had attended. They shared that their experience so far at the event was “the worst Pokemon Center experience”they had ever had.
Despite their dissatisfaction, they are not placing the blame on the Pokemon Center. Instead, they are calling out ‘scalpers’ and revealing that “people are reselling [merch] inside the store while sitting on the ground.”
Despite reports that the Pokemon Store will restock daily, it is evident that some disappointed attendees with later appointments are leaving empty-handed. Additional comments are also requesting purchase limits on certain items to prevent scalping.
Leave a Reply