Today sees the grand opening of London's very own pop up Pokémon Center store. Since it was first revealed we had no doubts that it'd be popular - UK fans have been crying out for something like this for years - but we didn't expect it to be this popular.
Westfield London, the shopping centre where the new store is based, issued a statement just after 1pm BST regarding the high demand being experienced by the store. It notes that queuing for the store has been closed with immediate effect for the rest of the day, nine hours ahead of its 10pm closing time.
"Queuing for entry to the Pokémon Center London is now closed for the day. There is a limit of sales on some items to ensure as many customers can enjoy the experience and the products available.
If you are travelling with a carer please make yourself known to a member of the security staff based at the entrance of the store and they will endeavour to grant you entry as soon as possible."
This might sound a bit excessive, but judging by the look of the queues it really does seem necessary. At around 11am, Daan Koopman shared the following video to show just how crazy the queue is, reporting that those at the back of the line would be waiting six hours to get in at the time.
The store only opened at 10am this morning, but some fans were there hours before. It looks like their eagerness to be first in line was worth it (and necessary).
If you're planning on attending yourself over the next few days, we'd urge you to have some sort of back-up plan in case things remain this hectic throughout the store's time in London. Official opening hours are 10am to 10pm on Monday - Saturday, and noon to 6pm on Sundays.
Wowzers.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 28
Re-scheduled to attend Sunday. Hopefully.
Edit. Rescheduled to next next weekend
Is that Westfield Stratford or shepherds Bush?
Do you get a special Pokemon for Sword/Shield or something for going to this store, or are they selling special Pokemon merch? I’m a bit out of touch with Pokemon, I’m wondering why the queue would be this big for a shop, even a new one.
@ralphdibny Stratford would’ve been better but it’s shepherds bush
I can't possibly imagine it being worth standing around in a line all day for but hey, each to their own I suppose.
Bit excessive though waiting this long to enter one store. I've got a feeling it'll be hectic all weekend, and again during half term. Probably calm down a bit next week.
Having the opening in the same weekend as EGX (with MCM next week) was either a brilliant or terrible idea. Not sure which.
Give it a week the novelty will very much have warn off.
@KevTastic84
Attendance will probably still be pretty high throughout the month it remains open.
They close on November 14th.
Almost as though opening a centre permanently would be a good idea.
Come on Nintendo, money is good.
Can somebody here tell me the price of the gentleman Pickachu pluche? I’m going to London in about two weeks and I would like to know the price beforehand.
Would like to get my wife one for her birthday. Please help a fellow Nintendolifer out!
Nintendo in "Not planning adequately enough for demand" shocker.
@princezorldo thanks, always good to learn these things!
Popped along this afternoon thinking nothing of it. Met by security at the entrance pointing me towards the long queue, sectioned off around the entire shopping centre and continuing outside and around the building. Nine hours long, no more people being added to the queue today! Madness. I'll try again early one morning next week!!
@1UP_MARIO Fair enough cheers, both are a mission for me anyway as I'm south east!
@KoekiieWoekiie They're £20 🙂
@GravyThief They do have a lot of exclusive stuff, yeah. Although I imagine it's mostly the novelty of a Pokémon Center coming to the UK for the first time.
@ryancraddock Thank you dear Ryan!
Wow, that’s a lot of pokemon fans in the UK. Nice.
I was in London by chance today, was thinking of nipping over there if I had time after work. As it happens I didn't have time, good thing too it seems! Would have been a massive pain if I made the journey over there for no reason.
@Raylax with this line? Definitely a good timing or neutral timing, can’t be bad....
@Miyamotosan That would be The Pokemon Company in this case, not completely Nintendo's doing.
Just hope it calms down when I plan to go around early November. I'm a nightowl so the earliest I could probably get there is around 4-5pm so I'm just hoping it won't be shut/shut off by a huge queue by the time I get there. Not to mention I won't want to stay in London for long when its gets too dark.
Not sure how much us Londoners care about Pokemon, but we love ourselves a bit of queuing!
Whole reason we’re leaving the EU is because mainland Europe can’t queue politely.
Are you sure it's not the queue to get your joycon drift repaired?
Is this just a shop? I figured a line like this, it must be something else.
. How slow does that guy walk? Fast forwarding seems a normal walking place.
Queued 10 hours today. That was longer than it should have been because of a screw up for about 2 hours where security forgot about our queue and let people in ahead of us, because wheelchair-bound people got super fast tracked only waiting 30 minutes and because 6 tills only had up to 3 cashiers.
However, I did manage to get what I wanted, my daughter is tired but happy and I only missed a few minutes of my concert later that evening. The umbrella is super cool, and the merch is japanese quality. Not like the cheap tat in ToysRUs or Game.
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