Last week, The Pokémon Company and Krispy Kreme announced a collaboration for a set of Pokémon-themed doughnuts to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary. It’s a limited-time promotion, and features doughnuts of different flavors themed after Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and the PokéBall, as well as a special set of doughnut holes (referred to as “gold doughnut dots” for some reason). The promotion is fluffy and fun, and even though I haven’t been to Krispy Kreme in years, I was admittedly a little excited to pick up a half-dozen and some holes and give them a try with fellow Kotaku writer Zack Zwiezen and then do a silly little review of the doughnuts for you all.
So, you know, of course when I went to pre-order the doughnuts this weekend to pick up on Tuesday, they were all sold out already. Obviously!
Both Krispy Kremes in the Kansas City area were already sold out as of Saturday (the promotion was announced Friday). I tried checking different order times and even days, going so far as to try to pre-order them nearly two weeks in advance (as far out as it would let me), but they still showed as sold out. Krispy Kremes in Springfield, Missouri and Wichita, Kansas, cities several hours away from me, were also sold out, as were several cities even farther afield. And various social media posts I’ve seen suggest that the lack of availability is widespread. Great!
I understand the ability to produce this stuff is limited and the doughnuts are probably in high demand, but really? Absolutely no availability for two whole weeks? And no information as to whether or not I’ll be able to walk in and buy a Bulbasaur doughnut to snack on? Krispy Kreme’s website says, “More availability is coming when the collection launches later this week,” but what does that even mean? Do I need to sit at my PC, fingers at the ready to pre-order tomorrow? Should I drive 25 minutes to the closest Krispy Kreme in the hopes that they have the doughnuts first-come-first-serve? Who knows! What I do know is that I’m not putting forth that much effort for some promotional doughnuts. I’ll eat coffee and oatmeal at home like I do most other days.
I know. They’re just doughnuts. But to me it’s just symbolic of how much it can suck to be a Pokémon fan nowadays. You can’t get ahold of Pokémon cards without paying a fortune, attending Pokémon Worlds is a massive hassle, basic stuff like plushes and other items are at a premium, and now you apparently can’t even get a doughnut.
Don’t worry, though. Someone’s selling the doughnut boxes (doughnuts not included) over on eBay for $65 apiece. The item description says the box “combines animation art and merchandise elements, making it a must-have for fans of both Pokémon and Krispy Kreme.” Glad we’ve got $65 empty doughnut boxes available to us at least.