The continued shortage of Pokémon cards, fueled by the pandemic, Twitch streamers, and scalpers, led to a chaotic situation at a Walmart in Pennsylvania. The moment the store opened, folks began to run to the section of the store where trading cards are sold, leading to chaos and one sad sight.
In a video captured by Instagram user tcg_grassi and shared by Twitter user bigcards30, around a dozen or more people can be seen rushing through the entrance of a Walmart the moment the doors were unlocked at 7 am. They were there to buy up the newly stocked Pokémon cards.
Kotaku reached out to tcg_grassi and received permission to share the video.
tcg_grassi told Kotaku that this mad rush of people isn’t normally how these things go down. They blame the wild rush on a few folks who began running, leading to more folks running and the eventual Pokémon stampede seen in the video.
“I’ve been in lines at other stores with them and they’ve all been respectful in the past. Kinda crazy,” said tcg_grassi.
The ongoing Pokémon card situation has led to single cards being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s also led to shortages of Pokemon cards as The Pokémon Company can’t print cards fast enough to keep up with the demand. Earlier this month, in response to the growing crowds, shoving and assholes, Target stopped selling Pokémon cards in-store.
According to tcg_grassi the manager working the morning shift at the Walmart was “annoyed” by the commotion and running. “The [other employees] looked fairly shocked.”
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