Photo: Photo Courtesy of Starbucks
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Who would have thought that a glass bear holding a Starbucks cup would be so sought after?
Well, most of the employees and baristas put in charge of crowd control on Thursday had an inkling of an idea.
"We got calls before the store even opened, like people were calling us asking if we had the cups," one employee said.
The new and highly coveted "Bearista" cup.Photo: Jay Willett / WBZ NewsRadio
Part of the coffee chain's winter collection for this year, the "Bearista" glass straw cup goes for roughly $30— the thing is, you'd be lucky to find one in-store. Most coffee shops only had about two in stock when the doors opened for the day, while superstore locations had about ten to start. The bears were gone within a matter of minutes.
"It's just a high demand product, people like things that other people don't have," a Starbucks barista said.
Prior to the launch, the little bears were going for $300 on eBay.
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Baristas told WBZ NewsRadio's Jay Willett that there were customers lined up in their cars well before opening, and that they brushed right by the Hello Kitty merchandise, which also launched that same day. Employees whose primary job is to make and prepare coffee, were suddenly tasked with fielding a flood of calls and inquiries into the Bearistas.
"I'm asked about it every ten minutes," one employee said. Store managers say they have no timeline on when the bears will be restocked.
WBZ NewsRadio's Jay Willett reports.