I spent 2025 queueing for stuff – this is what I snagged, Way of life News

Amidst my typical New Year’s Resolutions like consuming extra healthily and sleeping earlier (yeah proper), I made a decision final January that 2025 can be the yr I’d take up a brand new pastime.

Rather predictably, most of my resolutions barely lasted a month, if at that. But trying again on the yr I’ve had, I realised I truly did embrace a brand new pastime of types this yr, although not in the way in which I’d been imagining.

That pastime?

Queueing.

Yes, you learn that proper.

Over the previous yr, Singapore has seen various limited-edition merchandise promotions, from quick meals collabs to military-themed blind field plushies. Just seeing the magic phrases “limited stock” was sufficient to set off my FOMO (the lovable designs actually did not harm both).

And so, I set forth to queue for loot, armed with the kiasu spirit that each Singaporean is aware of all too effectively. How did I fare? Well…

Difficulty degree: Easy to common

If you have ever hunted for limited-edition merch earlier than, you realize the drill: You (usually) want to purchase a promo merchandise first to get entry to the merch, with buy limits per particular person and inventory quantities that modify wildly per outlet.

Some of my queueing expeditions proved to be surprisingly chill. Either there have been nearly no queues for some purpose, or you could possibly present up half an hour after opening and nonetheless be assured to get one.

KFC x Butterbear collab (October)

This was KFC’s second merch collab for the yr, following the insanely widespread KFC x Mofusand collab again in January and February (see the subsequent part for particulars). 

Surprisingly, there was far much less of a crowd queueing for the blind field keychains: 10 to fifteen folks at most, versus the 100+ folks swarming the place throughout the Mofusand collab.

Even the marginally extra unique Butterbear plush crossbody bag solely noticed across the similar quantity of individuals. Sorry Butterbear, I assume you possibly can’t examine to Mofusand’s recognition.

Mr Coconut x Nestle plushies (August to September)

I’m nonetheless a bit stunned by this one. Everyone loves Milo, and Mr Coconut is decently widespread too, so that you’d anticipate at the very least some folks to queue for these, proper? 

To my shock, after I went to snag the Week one plushie design (Cocorista Loves Milo), there nonetheless wasn’t anybody else in addition to me when the store opened. Still, I actually will not complain about not having different merch hunters to compete with.

Difficulty degree: Advanced

Of course, there have been merch drops that required much more planning and energy. Unless you present up 5 hours prematurely to safe your spot in line, you’d higher be able to go dwelling empty-handed.

KFC x Mofusand plushies (January to February)

The KFC Mofusand collab was the primary promotion I queued for this yr. I ended up having fun with the problem of queueing for stuff a lot that I began preserving an eye fixed out for different merch collabs, and the remaining is historical past. So, thanks for the brand new pastime, KFC!

After the primary week, it was clear to me that arriving any later than 7am can be a critical gamble on my half – a lesson I took critically for the remainder of the collab.

Week 4 was the place issues bought much more fascinating. The 8-inch tall KFC Bucket Hat Mofusand was solely obtainable at chosen retailers, with a mere 50 items up for grabs at every eligible outlet. 

By 7am, the employees got here outdoors to place up the “End of Queue” signal. With plenty of grumbling and complaints, the folks past the cut-off level dispersed and left.

Fun reality: At 10.55 am, with 5 minutes to go earlier than we have been allowed to enter and buy our loot, a passer-by got here strolling as much as the folks within the queue, hoping to purchase a queue ticket off one among us for $50, to no avail.

For anybody else considering of making an attempt one thing like this sooner or later, I’d advise you to avoid wasting your breath. After 6 hours of queueing, no one’s going to take you up on that provide. Besides, you would not even be capable of purchase one among these off a scalper or reseller on Carousell for $50. Try $200, and you will have higher luck.

Starbucks x Mofusand (August)

2025 may as effectively have been known as the Year of Mofusand. Aside from the aforementioned KFC collab, Starbucks had not one however TWO Mofusand merch launches, two weeks in a row.

The first launch wasn’t too troublesome, at the very least for me. Although I wasn’t in a position to head down as early as I’d have preferred, I used to be nonetheless in a position to get the items I needed (two cup clip blind containers, the gray Mofusand barista plush keychain, and the orange Starbucks Mofusand plushie) by checking a couple of close by Starbucks retailers.

And then, Starbucks made a shock announcement mere days after the preliminary launch, revealing {that a} second line-up of Mofusand merch was on its manner. This time, it was an adorably pink vary of strawberry-themed Mofusand goodies. Sales would start upon retailer opening, or at 7am at 24-hour shops.

quarter-hour earlier than gross sales started, a employees member came visiting with a listing sheet and a stack of order sheets for every particular person to pick what they needed to buy, and what number of they supposed to purchase. 

Once an individual stuffed of their order sheet, the employees member would replace the stock sheet he was carrying, permitting him to maintain monitor of the outlet’s inventory ranges extra simply.

Incidentally, this queueing session was my first encounter with a scalper within the wild. An older girl standing behind me noticed that I used to be solely getting one every of the Strawberry Barista Plushie and Strawberry Barista Plush Keychain (Limit two items every per buyer), and promptly tapped me on the shoulder. 

When I circled, she requested me to get my restrict of each gadgets so she might get extras, and stated she would pay me for it afterwards.

I used to be maybe a bit much less diplomatic than I ought to have been after I advised her off for making an attempt to bypass her buy restrict on the expense of everybody in line behind her. Fortunately, she stated nothing in response, so I narrowly prevented changing into a kind of individuals who will get into fights whereas queueing.

McDonald’s Vintage Lunchbox (November)

You might need seen this on McDonald’s social media at varied factors all year long. Whenever a brand new outlet opens, McDonald’s has a gap promotion the place the primary 1,000 clients on the outlet on opening day get a free McDonald’s classic metallic lunchbox with their meal.

It was surprisingly crowded after I went down, even for a MacDonald’s. There have been pretty prolonged queues on the ordering kiosks, after which once more on the counter to gather our meals. 

All the whereas, the precise queue to redeem the lunch containers had began manner earlier than the redemption time of 2pm, and was rising steadily. I ended up quickly abandoning my order and becoming a member of the lunchbox queue first, earlier than gathering my precise meals practically half an hour later.

After all the trouble I went via to get myself a lunchbox, I realised there’s only one drawback with it: I discover it too treasured to truly use for meals! Oh effectively.

Difficulty degree: Some exercise required

Unlike F&B collabs, museums make you earn your merch via extra than simply queuing – snagging gadgets requires quizzes, bodily challenges, or literal sprinting.

Defence Collective Festival (November)

When I first realized about this yr’s Defence Collective Festival via my social media feed, I wasn’t too . That is, till I realized that concerning the plushie blind containers distinctive to every museum that have been up for grabs.

In the curiosity of gathering the “full” set (random designs however), I made a decision to buy the competition’s All-Access Pass, which might permit me to participate within the passport actions in any respect three museums.

Each museum’s exercise passport had two doable actions to finish, of which you solely wanted to do one to redeem the plushie blind field. In the curiosity of saving time, I selected to finish every museum’s quiz path for my prizes.

National Museum of Singapore 138th Anniversary Stamp Rally (October)

As a part of National Museum of Singapore’s (NMS) 138th anniversary festivities, the museum collaborated with native artist Ven (@vensroom) to reimagine 4 creatures from the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings — the koel, moonrat, mangrove snake, and grey-cheeked flying squirrel — as lovely illustrations.

Said illustrations have been a part of a stamp rally going down throughout two weeks, the place you visited 4 places inside the museum and stuffed out the beautiful stamp rally postcard. Your reward for doing so (apart from the postcard itself)? If it was the weekend, the primary 350 contributors to finish the stamp rally might redeem an lovely koel plush bag appeal.

Naturally, I could not resist the problem.

Despite the weekend crowd, I used to be in a position to channel my inside Shanti Pereira, finishing my stamp card in document time to get my fingers on the cutest koel I’d ever seen.

Difficulty degree: Fastest fingers

Not all queueing is finished along with your legs. Sometimes, it comes right down to how rapidly you possibly can kind, faucet and swipe in your cellphone or pc.

Chagee x Hello Kitty (December)

I’ll be candid: While Chagee made a valiant effort to leap on the collab merch bandwagon, they may critically use some classes in methods to run such promotions.

Don’t get me mistaken: The tanned Hello Kitty merch line-up is totally beautiful. Even the promotional drink got here in a limited-edition Hello Kitty cup, with an identical reusable drink bag obtainable when you have been shopping for a number of drinks.

But the way in which the collab was dealt with? Oof. It was fairly clear that Chagee had severely underestimated how a lot demand there can be for stated merch, and was ill-prepared to deal with it.

Week one of many collab launch rapidly descended into chaos. Despite seen inventory sitting behind the counter, orders flooded in quicker than the system might monitor, wait instances stopped updating, and completed drinks piled up throughout the counter.

An hour handed. Then two. By the time “Fully redeemed” stickers went up on the posters, I used to be genuinely not sure whether or not the merch would nonetheless exist by the point my quantity was known as.

Week two wasn’t a lot better. The voucher bundle with the mini appeal was given a shock midnight launch, resulting in huge disappointment for anybody who’d assumed it will be offered within the morning when shops opened.

As for the plushie appeal? Oh boy.

Upon making an attempt to buy the bundle at 10am when orders started, I used to be met with a flood of error messages, ending with one informing me that the product I used to be making an attempt to purchase was now offered out.

I resorted to happening the listing of shops in growing order of distance, hoping that I’d succeed earlier than all of them offered out, and ended up lastly making my buy from an outlet on the opposite finish of Singapore.

Looking again, whereas I’m glad I managed to gather the complete set, the dearth of communication from Chagee and the ill-thought out dealing with of the promotion meant that this was simply my worst queueing expertise this yr.

Starbucks Bearista Cup (December)

You could have heard concerning the completely disastrous launch of those Bearista Glass Cold Cups within the US.  Thankfully, Starbucks Singapore had the great sense to deal with the Singapore launch of those cups in a much less chaotic method. Namely, by way of on-line pre-order (to be shipped in February 2026).

At 10 am on 21 December, each the Starbucks app and the Starbucks web site have been up to date right into a “holding area” in preparation for the pre-order’s launch the subsequent day. To maximise my probabilities, I made a decision to camp within the “holding area” in a single day on each my cellphone and my laptop computer.

Sure sufficient, as soon as the digital queue began the subsequent morning, I discovered myself with a queue variety of roughly 4,500 on my cellphone, and even additional again on my laptop computer. Wincing, I crossed my fingers, hoping that the pre-order allocation wouldn’t be fully offered out by the point it reached me.

Rather generously, Starbucks Singapore allowed for a most of 5 cups per pre-order. Wasting no time, I chosen a amount of 4 cups (I used to be additionally queueing on behalf of some associates), then tapped my manner via the cost screens as quick as I might till I reached the order affirmation display screen heralding my success.

So… was it price it?

Cute merch is all the time price it… although some positively felt extra satisfying to queue for than others.

Most price it: KFC x Mofusand (Lots of effort and time required, however very pretty run)

Most fascinating: National Museum of Singapore stamp rally (Fun, cute, and truthful redemption mechanics)

Most worrying: Chagee x Hello Kitty (Chagee HQ, when you’re studying this, please talk higher subsequent time)

Most well-run: Starbucks x Mofusand (Very organised, with order sheets to trace inventory ranges and buy entitlements)

Would I do it once more?

Even although I’d by no means deliberate to make a pastime of queueing, I am unable to deliver myself to remorse the experiences I’ve had with it this yr.

Despite the lengthy hours of ready and, sometimes, stress and frustration concerned, nothing beats the surge of triumph I really feel as soon as I lastly get my fingers on the merch that I’ve been trying to find. As lengthy as cute merch is up for grabs, I’ll fortunately conquer my FOMO by ensuring I’m in line on launch day.

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This article was first printed in Wonderwall.sg.