McDonald’s Japan Halts Pokémon Card Happy Meal Early After Chaos and Waste
So, picture this — McDonald’s Japan launches a special three-day Happy Meal promotion with exclusive Pokémon trading cards, and within hours, the whole thing blows up… in the worst way possible. The idea was simple: buy a Happy Meal, get a pack with two limited-edition Pokémon cards — one being a guaranteed Pikachu, and the other a random pick from a small pool. Sounds harmless enough, right? Well, turns out, it wasn’t.
From the moment the promotion began on August 9, people flooded outlets across the country, not just for the food but mainly for those collectible cards. Pokémon cards have been wildly popular again in recent years, and these Japan-exclusive ones were practically gold in the eyes of collectors and scalpers alike. Some customers weren’t even bothering to eat the food — they just grabbed the cards and dumped the meals. And I mean literally dumped them — social media lit up with photos of untouched Happy Meals piled in bags, abandoned on sidewalks, stuffed into bicycle baskets, and even scattered on the streets for pigeons to feast on.
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McDonald’s Japan was quick to issue a statement the same day, apologizing to customers and announcing that, due to unexpectedly high demand, the cards had run out early at many stores. What they didn’t really address were the growing criticisms about poor stock management, crowd control issues, and the sheer amount of food waste that was now making headlines. Many fans and bystanders were disgusted by the behavior of those buying in bulk just to resell the cards online for several times the meal’s price.
Despite a limit of five Happy Meals per person, determined scalpers apparently found ways around it — like placing multiple mobile orders under different accounts. Within hours, the cards were appearing on resale platforms, with some sellers raking in tens of thousands of dollars by flipping them in bulk. One set of calculations showed that, with meals costing just over 500 yen (about S$4.35), the profit margins were huge if you had enough stock to sell.
The scene outside some outlets looked more like the aftermath of a street festival gone wrong — early morning lines snaking out the doors, drive-thru queues stretching down roads, and mountains of food going to waste. In Shibuya, one video showed burgers and fries littering the pavement, swarmed by birds. Another clip caught people dumping multiple bags of Happy Meals straight into garbage bags.
McDonald’s has since said it will take steps to prevent this from happening again. Future promotions may have stricter purchase limits, and the company says it’s asking flea market app operators to crack down on bulk resellers. But for many fans, the damage was already done — the joy of the promotion was overshadowed by chaos, greed, and a lot of wasted food. In the end, the Pokémon cards were supposed to bring smiles, but instead, they left behind a mess.
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