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One hundred and five people waited outside the Mall of America early Saturday for a chance to purchase the wildly popular collectibles.
Pop Mart, the Chinese toymaker behind the trendy Labubu dolls, had been open for a week at the mall but reserved its most coveted items for the grand opening at 8 a.m. Saturday.
The first in line, Jason O and Douachee Vang of Eagan, came at 10:30 p.m. Friday the night prior wrapped in winter gear. Temperatures had dropped to 32 degrees overnight in Bloomington.
Vang hoped to get a Zimomo, which she says is the biggest and hardest toy to find.
“It's very exciting for me. It's something so cute,” said Vang.
The line grew to 220 people by 8:30 a.m., still an hour and a half before the rest of the mall opened.
Marcus Stewart oversees retail locations in several states as district manager for Pop Mart. He said lines were 30 minutes long the previous Saturday during the MOA store’s soft opening so he expects up to 10,000 people could stop by this weekend.
The store is Pop Mart’s first brick-and-mortar retail location in Minnesota. Pop Mart also has two vending machines at Rosedale Center in Roseville.
Stewart said the Pop Mart store at the Mall of America had the top sales volume in the country last week — not typical for new locations, he said.
“People have been trying online and everything's still sold out,” said Stewart.
Ashley Hofmann, director of leasing at the Mall of America, said the mall invited Pop Mart to Minnesota after hearing about the craze around characters like The Monsters.
“Pop Mart, especially, it's part of that pop culture entertainment,” said Hofmann. “Having shared experiences, bringing people together, sparking joy — that's important for our guests, so it's important for us as a team to bring concepts like that here.”
For Hofmann, it was also personal. She is into Labubus, too.
“I have two, and I'm obsessed with them. I was hoping they would let me in today, but I don't think they're going to. I didn't wait in line,” she said.
English (US) ·