The rage for the 2022 Qatar World Cup was anticipated in the land of Lionel Messi. Thousands of Argentines sold out in a few hours the albums and the envelopes of the official World Cup figurines, the vendors speak of a “total adrenaline rush” and admit, in dialogue with EFE, that they cannot “supply” with the orders.
«I have my newspaper stand where people come, look for the stickers, the album, and the truth is that the distributor does not send it to you. I came here because of people’s desperation, to please them. This year is tremendous, there is a total adrenaline rush,” Alicia Portillo told EFE from the door of a local figurine wholesaler.
Portillo assures that every day around 100 people ask her if she, at her newsstand, sells the World Cup figurines. Something similar relates Rafael Sosa, owner of a kiosk on the mythical Buenos Aires Corrientes avenue.
Sosa, like many others, received the albums and the figurines and in less than 24 hours sold all the merchandise (about 50 albums and about 1,200 envelopes of figurines).»People stop by all the time and ask if we have any. It’s furious,” he explained to EFE.
Sosa pointed out that each person buys “a lot of envelopes.” “You can have clients who ask you for 100 packages or clients who ask you for closed packages, that happens a lot,” she pointed out.
THE FUROR FOR FIGURINES, WITHOUT AGE OR GENDER
For days now, the vast majority of kiosks, supermarkets, toy stores and newsstands in the Argentine capital have posted signs informing them that the albums and figurines are already sold out.
Many vendors write down the phone number and name of potential customers in notebooks to call them when they receive “the merchandise.”
As they remarked to EFE, not only the youngest try to buy the figurines. Boys, girls, adolescents, adults and adults seek to get the envelopes.
THE DEMAND EXCEEDED “ALL EXPECTATIONS”
Franco, who collaborates in a wholesale distributor of figurines located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Cristóbal, explained to EFE that those who work in the field “say that this World Cup exceeded all expectations.”
«Since two days before the launch these lines began, we can’t cope with the stock. They try to supply first the kiosks that have been clients for years and then the rest for the people who come. Today we have already warned that there will be no merchandise, we have already warned them several times, but people still choose to stay,” Franco said after trying, without much success, to get people to stop waiting at the door of the store for the figurines to arrive.
THE ILLUSION OF THE PEOPLE
Argentina had, until last year, 28 years without celebrating a title of its senior team. The conquest of the Copa América, obtaining the Finalíssima, the undefeated record of 33 matches that the Albiceleste has been in and the great performance shown in the South American qualifiers fuel the illusion of the Argentines, who know that they are facing what will probably be the last World Cup of Messi.
Buying the figurines and completing the album is for many a way to calm the anxiety generated by the start of a World Cup that, unlike the previous one, has the Albiceleste as a firm candidate to fight for the title. EFE
