At McDonald ' s , a Case
Of Mass Beaniemania
By Richard Gibson
06/05/1998
The Wall Street Journal
Page B1
(Copyright (c) 1998, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
LIBERAL, Kan. -- One recent evening after 9 p.m., Jody Hibbert stopped by the only McDonald's in this west
Kansas town for the fourth time that day. She wasn't there for the food.
Like a multitude of other Americans, Mrs. Hibbert is hooked on Teenie Beanie Babies. She didn't want to miss
getting all 12 of the critters starring in a promotion that is shaping up as one of the most successful marketing
campaigns ever.
"I don't smoke, I don't drink, I gotta have some vice," the 63-year-old grandmother says, explaining why she buys 10
toys on each visit, by purchasing that many Happy Meals. What she and husband Neil don't eat, Mrs. Hibbert
freezes for use later.
McDonald's Corp. is striking gold by simply repeating a Teenie Beanie Babies promotion that was a hit last spring.
This year's babyfest began just two weeks ago and was supposed to last a month. But many metropolitan-area
McDonald's were cleaned out of the toys days ago, and even rural pockets like Liberal expect to sell their last ones
this weekend.
People are driving hundreds of miles, stopping at every McDonald's, searching for unsold toys. A want ad in the
Hutchinson (Kan.) News offers $75 for a complete set. One such set went for $500 at a charity auction here in
Liberal. Some restaurants have nearly run out of food items, demand is so high.
While the toys, made by Ty Inc., Oak Brook, Ill., come free with purchase of a Happy Meal-typically priced at
$1.99-patrons can buy them outright with the purchase of another food item. Sold alone, each toy's suggested retail
price is $1.59, although franchisees can set up their own terms -- one reason baby hunters are roaming from outlet to
outlet in search of the best possible deal. The toys cost less than 60 cents each, franchisees say, so they have become
a high-profit item.
All this is putting happy faces on McDonald's executives and the company's 2,772 franchisees. "Our cash flow has
just been super," says Mark Benzinger, owner of the burger chain's outlet in Liberal. He credits the toys with
pushing his sales up more than 30% from a year ago. Other franchisees report similar results.
Last year, the initial Teenie Beanie giveaway overwhelmed McDonald's and its famed marketing department. While
the company knew that full-sized Beanie Babies were a hot item, it didn't anticipate the scramble miniatures would
cause. At some restaurants police had to control crowds. Almost overnight about 80 million toys were gobbled up,
leaving a string of unhappy children, piqued parents, exhausted restaurant employees and stories of customers
throwing away Happy Meals they had bought just for the toys.
Determined to prevent a repeat rampage, McDonald's doubled its toy order this spring and modified the promotion
so the menagerie, which ranges from an inchworm to a hippopotamus, could be purchased with menu items other
than kids' meals.
Things have still gotten out of hand. Jim Geis, who owns McDonald's restaurants in Dodge City and Scott City,
Kan., says someone tried to rip his Teenie Beanie Babies display case off the wall. Still, he has been going through
more than 1,500 toys a day, and for a fellow who a year ago hadn't heard of Beanie Babies, that is just fine. "Am I
tickled? Yes. Do I want to see Beanie Babies next year? Yeah," he says.
A third Teenie Beanie promotion is in the offing for 1999, but the company hasn't made any official announcement.
Right now, customers are going all out to secure this year's lineup. Franchisee Ed Milligan in Hugoton, Kan., some
35 miles northwest of Liberal, says an elderly couple drove from Denver to his Garden City store last Friday, only to
learn that Mel, the koala bear miniature they sought, wasn't available yet. So they got a motel room and waited until
it was. "It's hard to figure what trips people's trigger," he says.
Mr. Milligan talks daily with his fellow western Kansas franchisees Mr. Geis and Mr. Benzinger to see where their
supplies stand. Because "we all are trying hard to run out at the same time," he says, the three shuttle waning
supplies among their stores.
Mr. Benzinger says he gets 60 or more calls a day from people asking which critter is available. In Kentucky and
elsewhere, some restaurants have resorted to putting recordings on their phones saying, "Due to popular demand
we're not sure which [toy] we'll have in."
Mr. Geis hired several people just to stuff the special Happy Meal bags with toys. He expresses amazement upon
hearing that a market already has developed among collectors for the bags.
Collectors account for much of the current frenzy. The 1998 Beanie World Buyer's Guide says a mint set of last
year's McDonald's Teenie Beanie Babies is worth $85, and estimates it will hit $200 by next January.
Janet Taylor, who is eating a Happy Meal breakfast with her children at the Liberal McDonald's, says she sold one
of this year's toys to someone over the Internet for $15. "I was shocked," she says. Still, the woman confesses that
she buys the Teenie Beanie Babies from her eight-year-old son for $3 each, because he isn't particularly excited
about them and she wants to put them aside for the future.
Dena Koehn, a friend of Mrs. Taylor, says she is down at the restaurant "about every 24 hours" because of the toys.
When it took more than a day to deplete the restaurant's supply of Scoop the pelican, "we went into french fry
withdrawal," she says.
Which brings us back to Mrs. Hibbert. With nine grandchildren, she can easily justify her purchase of 10 Happy
Meals at a time. But she is also laying in a large supply of the toys for herself. A collector of everything from
matchbooks to crystal, she stores the McDonald's creatures in freezer bags. And what does she do with all those
french fries she gets with her multiple Happy Meal purchases? She cuts them up into one-inch pieces, sautes them in
a skillet with onion and green peppers, and makes a nifty cheesy potatoes dish. Her husband, she says, is "nuts over
it."