South Korea Really Loves Pokémon Bread, Which Is Selling Out
For the first time in 20 years, Pokémon bread is back on sale in South Korea. And the snacks are flying off the shelves. That Pokemon anime did not debut in South Korea until 1999 due to the country’s ban on Japanese goods. The bread was available in South Korea until the early 2000s but was discontinued after that. Chosun online reports that Pokémon bread returned to Korean stores at the end of February 2022, priced at 1,500 won ($1.22) apiece.
Pokémon bread is a popular snack in Japan. My children have grown up eating it, and although there is no bread this great, to be honest, this is something the fans love: each piece of bread is wrapped in pocket monster-themed packaging and comes with collectible Pokémon stickers.
According to Chosun Online, 1.5 million Pokémon bread snacks were sold in South Korea in just the first week of sales. That’s a lot of bread! Sales are reportedly driven by people in their 20s and 30s who were children when the bread was sold in South Korea. Probably out of nostalgia, they snapped up the snack.
On social media and YouTube, fans and influencers also post images and reviews of Pokémon Bread. Others buy hundreds of Pokemon bread snacks, pulling out every sticker.
All this probably fueled the interest even more. There are reports of snack sales, where diehards go from store to store hoping to get the treatment they want. The stickers are also sold individually online in South Korea, with some being much more expensive. For example, a Squirtle sticker costs 15,000 won ($12.20). That’s ten times more expensive than a piece of real bread! To get pokemon bread, such as stickers, you have to eat them all.
