Why are people freaking out over getting the latest Stanley cups?
When I saw ‘Stanley cups’ trending my first reaction was “Is this a sports story?” Yes, even I know that the Stanley Cup is a sports prize… I just cannot tell you for which sport. But no, we’re not talking *quick Google search* hockey! It’s hockey! No, we’re actually discussing the special Valentine’s Day edition of a 40-ounce drinking tumbler with straw, made by Stanley in collaboration with Starbucks that is available for a limited time at Target. More specifically, we’re marveling at how people are camping outside Target, jumping over counters, and generally going batshit crazy freaking out over this $45 product that is still, at the end of the day, a vessel for your beverage. HuffPost consulted analysts, professors, researchers, and psychologists to help us understand this moment of human history:
People are running amok: The cups, sold exclusively at Target stores, had some people camping outside their local stores to secure the goods. Videos posted on TikTok show parched fans racing through the aisles of Target to get to the 40-ounce water bottles. A video on TMZ shows a man desperately jumping over the counter at a Target’s Starbucks to steal a box of the tumblers, which run for $45 apiece. (Water is essential, people, but a Stanley cup is not!) The new Stanley cups, which come in Cosmo Pink and Target Red, are already up on resale sites like eBay and listed at prices up to $300 — not surprising given the fact that a rep for Starbucks confirmed that the cup will not be restocked.
TikTok is to blame: The hype over the Stanley Cup among millennial and Gen Z women (and more recently, Gen Alpha preteens) began on social media, specifically on TikTok. There, users sing the praises of all things Stanley and show off the myriad accessories they’ve bought to upgrade their tumblers. … “Let’s talk about the Stanley cup and what makes it so life changing,” one TikTokker intoned in her video. “I get it, you probably don’t want another cup but you need this cup.”
Word of mouth: Ashlee LeSueur, a co-founder of the Buy Guide, an online shopping blog and Instagram account, was an early adopter of the Stanley Quencher back in 2017. “Of all the insulated cups… this is the one. Just trust,” LeSueur and her team wrote in 2017, raving about its ability to keep beverages cold, its straw, its handle and its ability to be tossed in the dishwasher. A viral story in November about how a Stanley tumbler was the only item that survived a car fire (with ice still inside, no less) cemented Stanley’s “unbreakable” reputation.
The scarcity model: The idea that something is rare or limited edition works wonders on buyers. The fact that the Stanley cup presents affordable scarcity tips those “I’ve gotta have it” feelings over the edge, said Katie Thomas, the lead of the Consumer Institute at Kearney, a global management consulting firm. “While the scarcity model is often associated with luxury, that’s exactly the reason it’s also appealing in the mainstream — it allows consumers to feel like they are getting something special that not everyone has, without being priced out,” she said. It taps into the emotions of consumers, Thomas said, “from the excitement leading up to the release, to the personal victory and gratification if and when the product is acquired.”
The need to belong: Hannah Shamji is a consumer insights researcher who helps marketers and founders make smarter decisions by understanding their customers. The way she sees it, people aren’t buying a Stanley mug. They’re buying into the Stanley club. “You don’t stampede in Target for a tumbler,” she said. “What [people] are buying is [a sense of] belonging. People want to be in the know or fit in.” It’s a status move, Shamji said, and that’s not a bad thing: “Status is a really powerful driver of purchase behavior, because it tugs on a very fundamental human need: to belong.” … The cup is a social currency, Shamji said, a flex, just like a large collection of Beanie Babies (of all things) were years ago.
All downhill from here: Lewis, the youth consumer trends analyst, told Business Insider she thinks there’s nowhere to go but down from here for Stanley. … “The risk for a brand like Stanley is that it might become ubiquitous and is therefore no longer a symbol for one-upping in one’s social network,” said Steve Westberg, an associate psychology professor at the University of Southern California with expertise in consumer psychology … Westberg told HuffPost he thinks the water bottles will see a sales decline when the social factor no longer drives sales, but that they’ll still merit shelf space “just based on just being a darn good cup.”
Let me see if I’ve got this right: people want the Stanley Cup because everyone is talking about it on TikTok and it’s an “affordable” status symbol (if you call $45 for a water tumbler affordable) and we all want to belong, but the whole craze is gonna crash because soon everyone will have the no-longer-exclusive item and then “belonging” is suddenly not as important as finding the new trend with which to one-up your peers. That’s the gist of the cycle, yes? At least the Stanley Cup is an undeniably quality product. For what it’s worth, I love my 32-ounce Bubba drinking tumbler — also available at Target — that comes with straw, detachable handle, and in vibrant colors. At just $25, it’s a comparative steal. Plus I have an inordinate amount of fun saying throughout the day, “Where’s my Bubba?”
for a tumbler 😭😭😭 yall gotta be joking do you not have jobs???? pic.twitter.com/yZx5UmsFbv
— liv⸆⸉ (@rightnowtays) January 3, 2024
i could watch a 10 episode documentary on the whole stanley thing pic.twitter.com/4noUykrBiq
— oatmeal influencer (@acechhh) January 1, 2024
Target Starbucks Stanley cup secured 😎 Got the very last one as they were selling 10 and I was 10th, I’m very happy! Not a moment to spare. 💕💖 pic.twitter.com/BdAnrXyEAX
— abigail 🛸 (@imrickdalton) January 3, 2024
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