Here's Your First Look Inside London's Shiny New Pokémon Center

I will only shop at dedicated Pokemon Snap stores.

I am in London from 6-10 November, so might have to pop in and have a look

I wish Nintendo would do something like this in Ottawa Canada.

@DarthFoxMcCloud I was surprised to even see a Nintendo Store kiosk at the Rideau Center downtown.

I still dig Bowler Hat Pikachu!

I wish more of these would pop up in different spots of the world. They can start by having one in the Midwestern US.

I'll take one of everything please.

@DarthFoxMcCloud Heck I'd just be happy if we had an online Pokemon center in Canada (or if the US one would ship to Canada!!!)

Wouldn’t it be nice if they just opened it up permanently?

I still don't understand the idea of putting this much work into the store only to have it open for a short time. Someone on another article said it's apparently a trendy thing to do...

But that's really dumb in my opinion.

So many Pokémon, so little time/money/trips to London!

Though shouldn't it be "Pokémon Centre?" Hmm....

I also wouldn't mind visiting Nintendo New York (formerly Nintendo World) and/or Nintendo Tokyo/Pokémon Center...

@Ooccoo_Jr Gotta catch 'em all!

@Heavyarms55 good thing you're not in business then!

Renting store space is expensive, especially in global hubs like London, and something like this has limited appeal - in the long run, how many people are REALLY going to up for spending £20 on a Pikachu plush? It's a limited market. Coupled with the fact that most people shop online these days - opening a niche store like this permanently would not be sustainable.

But when there is a big community event upcoming, like the release of Sword and Shield, suddenly more people are interested in the franchise. And as we all know from limited products such as NES Mini and amiibo, scarcity drives appeal - which is what the 'pop-up' nature achieves.

So by having this shop open for a limited time, and around the time of a big product launch, they are practically guaranteed to fully make back the money spent on the barebones decorating and rent, and also make a tidy profit on top of that, while also serving as a tool for promoting the new games.

FOMO (fear of missing out) is a powerful marketing tool in today's social media riddled society, so this store is guaranteed to be a huge hit. If it is that much of a success, I could easily see them extending the opening period til after Christmas.

@Mogster perhaps the British market is just that jaded. But in Japan themed stores like this are common. Pokemon, Disney, and various long running anime all have their own shops.

And quite a few things are up on eBay already for over-inflated prices

Great

Ill be there, put your streetpasses on and mingle mode.
Ill get the cheapest exclusive piece of rubbish they sell

@Savlep99 Me too, and while that was awesome, it was pretty small and they didn't have everything. Would have been nice if they had a whole store, even if it was just a temporary pop-up which this kiosk was. I believe it closes early November.