Literary Bread Sells Out as "Cute Literature" Trend Catches On

Convenience store chain GS25 is experiencing a sales surge with its collaboration bread series featuring publisher Minumsa and the character IP brand 'Today's Cuteness.' The initial release, "About Love" (mocha bun with custard cream) and "Howl Like a Wolf" (sesame bread with salted milk cream), has sold approximately 95% of its stock, with convenience store owners reporting a high demand and pre-orders through the 'Our Neighborhood GS25' app.

This unexpected success is largely driven by the "text-hip" trend, where young adults embrace text and literature as a form of personal expression and taste. The bread comes with one of 20 randomly included bookmarks, designed with cute characters on covers of Minumsa's classic literary works. Three of these bookmarks are exclusive to GS25, unavailable at Minumsa's offline pop-up events, adding a layer of collectibility.

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Bread is ordered and stocked daily, but reservations are continuing from people who want to buy the bread as soon as inventory is available through the Our Neighborhood GS25 app.

The bookmark selection heavily features classic masterpieces, including works by Goethe, "Animal Farm," "Les Misérables," "Romeo and Juliet," and "The Analects." Five bookmarks are dedicated to contemporary poetry collections, reflecting current reading trends. GS25 plans to release two more flavors, "Pride and Prejudice" (mocha bun with milk cream) and "A Bad Boy Stands" (sesame bread with custard cream), on April 26th.

A GS25 representative noted the "passionate response" to the collaboration, attributing the positive outcome to the combination of the "text-hip" trend and the high perceived value of the collectible bookmarks. Customers can purchase the collaboration bread with a 1+1 deal when paying with GS Pay until the end of April.

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The combination of the text-hip trend and interest in highly collectible merchandise has led to positive results.