‘Hanged’ on $5 stuffed birds, desperate shoppers flock to Target: ‘The stress is palpable’

The early bird gets the worm – or, in this case, the decorative figurine.

Loyal Target shoppers and devout fans of the store’s festive birds rise into the wee hours of the morning in an attempt to snag one of the $5 cloth figurines online before they sell out — again.

Cicero, New York, resident Theresa Hoffman woke up three hours later than she was supposed to — at 6 a.m. — on July 14 to mark the newly thrown Halloween set. The 24-year-old picked up seven that day, she told the Wall Street Journal, which alone added to her collection of 75.

The bird frenzy has similarities to the 90s Beanie Baby craze or Gen Z’s current obsession with Sonny Angel figurines, and often results in sales of the coveted creatures.

“The stress is palpable,” Megan Frantz, a 32-year-old electrical engineer who owns 180 deceased birds, told The Journal.

The birds, which were first produced more than a decade ago, are released each season or holiday – the summer birds were pool and sun wear, while the winter collection featured scarves and hats – but can be found on resale sites every month later at a high price. increase On eBay, for one, a set of four Easter-themed birds is listed for nearly $100, while an assortment of 15 Christmas birds sells for $350.

Collectors can join Facebook groups dedicated to finding, selling and swapping their “birbs,” as they’re affectionately called, which gather thousands of members, while Redditors and TikTokkers brag about their latest finds. huge collections and creative methods of online display.

Frantz, along with her sister, Anna, 34, have joined such groups to stay informed of upcoming layoffs. The Portland, Ore., duo also build custom creatures and sell them, often made to imitate famous figures like Taylor Swift or Dwayne “The Flock” Johnson.

Target released its own celebrity character earlier this year, which fans claimed looked like Tippi Hedren, despite the “birb” being billed as “The Movie Star’s Feathered Bird Friend.”

Regardless, the adorable bird went viral as the best of Target’s Pride collection and quickly sold out online, forcing 24-year-old Connor Clary to visit multiple brick-and-mortar stores to find one.

“A lot of the hype around the bird is that people see other people fighting to get them,” the content creator told The Journal. “It makes other people want to get them.”

In fact, people are so fascinated by the decorative figures that one superfan got the Valentine’s Day 2021 bird, named Poppy, tattooed on her leg. Some devotees have even had to curb their spending habits when it comes to collectible creatures.

“My rule now, especially now that I have one for every month of the year, unless it’s cuter than what I already have, I can’t buy more,” Alyssa Fine, 33, a second-grade teacher and owner proud of 62 birds, told The Journal.

The New Jersey resident uses the fabric figurines as educational tools in her classroom and often goes “bird watching” with fellow educators at Target to hunt down new birds, some of which have sparked arguments among the faithful.

The new Halloween birds, for one, have sparked a raging online debate about being beakless, their typical bills exchanged for goofy mouth expressions and grins.

The lack of their distinctive beaks – called “mouth gates” – has frustrated and annoyed many collectors, prompting some fans to perform seam repair “surgery” to remove the uncharacteristic mouths.

“Why do they have mouths?” asked one season-obsessed horror content creator, arguing that “they still need beaks” in a recent TikTok video.

“They’d be so much cuter without the mouths,” one concerned user commented on another clip.

And yet, almost all models are sold online.

The popularity of the clothing creatures and the accessories and merchandise that accompany them is “another example of the creativity, playfulness and magic that our interior product design team brings to their work,” said Jill Sando, an executive vice president at Target. told The Journal, hinting at new collections expected to arrive later this year.

And the craze is contagious, as actual fanatics sing the birds’ praises.

“Every job I’ve ever had, I’ve gotten people addicted to chicks, so now, ex-bosses still text me, ‘Let me know when the new chicks drop,'” Hoffman said.