Earlier this month, Starbucks released new merchandise to celebrate the holiday season. While Starbucks has been on top of releasing new designs each year, they really outdid themselves this year with the “Bearista” cup. A glass bear with a stark green hat, fans have swooned over getting their hands on this new possession immediately. It went as far as people being the first to line up at 3:30 in the morning, or fighting others in a real-life Hunger Games, because there were limited quantities in each store.
This is not the first time the American public has been caught up in a frenzy for having the hottest new item. There is always this feeling of competition, that one has to be caught up in the latest trends and boast how they could get their hands on a Bearista, not because they actually care about the cup. This is a classic case of overconsumption, when people buy items they do not need just to have items hoarded in their homes.
It is no surprise that Starbucks purposefully put out limited quantities of Bearistas at a time to drive the customers’ adrenaline rush, to get a hold of the cup before it would be too late. This tactic worked to drive more sales to the company, known as scarcity marketing.
Some people buy Bearistas only to immediately resell them on eBay, some for going up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nonetheless, customers are willing to buy them from there too. It does not matter how much a Bearista would cost; what matters is just having one. However, there are replicas of the exact same bear cup found on Amazon or at Walmart, just without the Starbucks logo. The prices here are much more reasonable, so why would people panic when there are quantities of nearly identical cups in stock?
The mystery cup on the shelf has always repeated itself. The Hydro flasks were the ultimate water bottle to have. Back in the late 2010s, it was all about the preppy VSCO girl aesthetic, complemented with this bottle, Birkenstock sandals and scrunchies. VSCO girls have not made a hot comeback in a minute, though. We do not know if they ever will.
Then came 2024 with the Stanley tumblers. Back then, it was all about who could have the most Stanleys, and the cutest ones at that. In the video that went viral of Stanley overconsumption, Target forced its customers to only grab two cups maximum. Within seconds, the shelf was wiped out. Nowadays, no one talks about the Stanleys anymore. It is common to go to any store and see some in stock, waiting to be brought home. At this point, they are just water bottles.
Right before the Bearistas became the thing, the Owala Freesip bottles were really taking off too. People would travel to different stores just to find the perfect Owala. Others would rave over the limited edition collections. Owala even had a partnership with Handshake (a service for career and internship opportunities) and Google Gemini (an AI service), giving away free water bottles to students who signed up for Google Gemini benefits.
People online have been quick to judge this quirky behavior coming from fans swooning over their new Bearistas, citing it was inappropriate behavior coming from grown adults to fight over something as simple as a cup. Others are certain Bearistas would end up in thrift stores within a few months. Others believed the United States is a joke if its citizens are concerned mainly about cups as their priority. For instance, a user on TikTok made a post about how people should be fighting for democracy as much as fighting for this cup.
Will these Bearistas be rotting away in cabinets or in thrift stores in the near future? We do not know, but there is a high likelihood that Bearistas will go out of style just as fast as they had their two seconds of fame.