Pokemon Toy Shortage Perplexes Burger King

Burger King Corp. will run out of Pokemon toys before its eight-week promotion tied to the Warner Bros. hit movie ends if demand continues at record levels.

The company is trying to solve shortages by transferring the toys to Southern California from markets where there is less demand, spokeswoman Kim Miller said Monday. Many of the restaurants have not been able to keep up with the craving for the collectible cards and plastic toy characters that Burger King is offering with its Kids Meals.

“We are looking at all our options,” Miller said. “What is it that we can produce to satisfy consumers should we have widespread outages before the end? We have a whole team dedicated to solving that.”

Miller said the chain’s $22-million promotion is by far Burger King’s most successful despite the shortages in some areas. It is part of the phenomenon connected to “Pokemon: The First Movie,” which grossed $52.1 million during its first five days of release.

Burger King managers have been attempting to improvise by giving away such items as free desserts or sunglasses with the Kids Meals in some locations to satisfy customers.

“Restaurants are selling 1,000 meals a day,” Miller said. “That’s three times our normal Kids Meal volume during a successful promotion.” However, the short supply has resulted in some children walking out in tears and left many parents irate and employees harried.

If the shortages continue, some alternative Pokemon merchandise will come with the meals on an interim basis as early as this week, Miller said.

Burger King’s original plan was to unveil 57 toys in 56 days--a rate of eight per week--at its 8,000 U.S. locations. But Miller said that strategy has been abandoned and all of the available toys are being transported to restaurants as quickly as possible. The toys are being produced in Taiwan and China.

“We aren’t holding anything back,” Miller said. “As soon as they reach the shores, they are going into our restaurants.”

A survey of more than a dozen Southland Burger Kings on Monday showed that about half of the restaurants were out of toys. Some had received a new supply over the weekend, but managers of others said they still are waiting.

“I’m expecting 200 today and already have people waiting for them,” said the manager of an Anaheim Burger King.