Japan McDonald's Happy Sets wasted in Pokemon card frenzy

The Mainichi

3 days ago

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- McDonald's Co. (Japan) has found that its campaign to give away Pokemon trading cards with its Happy Set combo meals prompted some customers to buy the meals in bulk solely to obtain the cards for resale, while discarding the food.
The fast-food chain, which revealed the blunder on Monday in a press release, had limited purchases of the Happy Set -- known as the Happy Meal outside of Japan -- to five per person and implemented measures to prevent the reselling of the cards at higher prices ahead of the three-day promotion from Saturday.
But the company admitted that its preparations were "insufficient" and issued an apology. The campaign ended on the first day as many outlets ran out of the cards.
Before the launch, McDonald's had also asked Japanese online flea market operator Mercari Inc. to help deal with listings of the trading cards, a highly sought-after collectible item.
The fast-food chain said it will implement stricter measures in the future such as denying entry to people who attempt to buy large quantities of the combo meals.