Target stores are scrambling to keep their $5 foam and polyester birds on shelves as fans spark huge searches for the limited-edition items.
Known to fans as “birbs,” customers have been rushing to buy the new collectible item as soon as they go on sale at 3 a.m. ET, in a frenzy similar to the Beanie Baby craze of the ’90s. According to the Wall Street Journal.
Fans then brag about their finds on social media, joining Facebook and Reddit groups to share their tips.
Theresa Hoffman, a 24-year-old math teaching assistant from upstate New York, makes TikTok videos about birds, sorts through new collections and shows off some of the custom ones she’s made, like a Father’s Day bird and a crayon-themed bird.
Target is struggling to keep its $5 foam and polyester birds on shelves
He has also managed to get others to join the collection.
“In every workplace I’ve worked, I’ve gotten people addicted to birds, so now my old bosses still text me saying, ‘Let me know when the new birds show up,'” she said.
Target began selling the birds in 2012 and now releases new birds for different occasions.
She also sells small bird-shaped tree ornaments, bird-themed advent calendars and accessories.
Hoffman has already purchased 75 of the birds, while Jackie Kaelble, a 37-year-old marketing communications director from St. Paul, Minnesota, creates “birdscapes” in her living room for her collection of more than 150 birds.
Her summer birds are currently partying in Barbie’s pool, with a hot dog cart nearby.
The ‘birbs’, as they are known to fans, are released sporadically throughout the year for different occasions.
Kaelble is such a bird lover that she got a tattoo above her knee of a Valentine’s Day 2021 theme: a strawberry bird named Poppy.
Alyssa Fine, a second-grade teacher in Madison, New Jersey, also has 62 birds that she uses as a tool to tell stories to her students.
“In a time when people are worried about kids lacking some of those things because they’re so addicted to technology, it was a lot of fun to spark their creativity and let them do whatever they wanted,” she said of her students.
The ritual became so popular at the school, Fine said, that she and other teachers would go “bird watching” to see what they could find at Target.
She says she is now fighting the temptation to buy even more.
“My rule now, especially now that I have one for every month of the year, is that unless it’s prettier than the ones I already have, I can’t buy more,” she said.
Fans will wake up at 3 a.m. ET to purchase the new collectibles as soon as they go on sale.
Jill Sando, executive vice president of Target, now says the decade-long popularity of these birds “is another example of the creativity, playfulness and magic that our in-house product design team brings to their work.”
Jill Sando, executive vice president of Target, now says the decade-long popularity of these birds “is another example of the creativity, playfulness and magic that our in-house product design team brings to their work.”
He noted that more selections will be introduced throughout the year, “including a new reunion collection to be revealed soon.”
But Connor Clay, a 24-year-old content creator, says part of the hype around the birds “is that people see other people fighting to get them.”
“It makes other people want to get them.”
This year’s Halloween collection has left some collectors disappointed by the lack of a pickaxe.
But this year’s Halloween birds, which debuted in July, have left some collectors disappointed.
Birds usually wear clothes, but they still have beaks.
However, all of this year’s collections feature cartoon-like mouths, leading to what one fan has dubbed “mouthgate.”
“It’s OK to be upset that all birds have mouths,” said DeAnna Allen, a 30-year-old dog sitter in Jacksonville, Florida, who has purchased 86 birds since late 2020.
“We don’t even have the option to buy one that doesn’t have a mouth.”
Some fans have resorted to “bird surgery” to remove the mouths, but Allen said he doesn’t think he’ll do that.
Still, she said, “I think it’s reasonable to be disappointed about the birds this season.”