2023 saw the rise of Stanley cups and how people rushed to get them. Since then, they have sold out in stores very quickly. Online videos also showed how desperate people were to obtain one or more, as people fought in aisles for these cups.
Sometime in the middle of January, a Sacramento woman went to great lengths to get some Stanley cups. Police responded to a call regarding a retail theft from a store. The staff reported that they “saw a woman take a shopping cart full of Stanley water bottles without paying for them.”
The woman allegedly stole not one or two but five dozen Stanley cups! That’s 60 cups! The value of these cups stands at $2,500 and might increase due to high demand in 2024. Luckily, a Roseville police officer saw the reported woman’s vehicle on a nearby highway and pulled her over.
The police searched her car and found more than they thought they would. In the trunk of her car, they discovered that the 23-year-old stole 65 Stanley cups! They arrested her for grand theft from a retail store. The police also put out a statement condemning the extreme measures people go to obtain these cups.
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“While Stanley Quenchers are all the rage, we strongly advise against turning to crime to fulfill your hydration habits,” the police said on Facebook. “The Roseville Police Department remains committed to stopping retail theft.”
Furthermore, this shows that the buzz for these cups is not dying down soon. Their Valentine’s Day collection is already sold out, much to people’s dismay.
Many people are reselling for outrageous prices online, thanks to extreme demand. A standard Stanley cup costs about $20 to $50, depending on the size. However, resellers are putting them up for hundreds of dollars.
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Moreover, people are still buying these cups for those outrageous prices! This begs the question, “What makes Stanley cups so special?” The answer is simple: brilliant marketing.
The Stanley brand is 111 years old, invented by William Stanley Jr. in 1913. He originally made the all-steel vacuum-insulated bottle to keep food and beverages hot or cold for long periods.
Nowadays, people use it for many purposes, including as a hiking and camping accessory. The cups weren’t always popular until they switched their marketing strategy in 2020. They focused on a much younger demographic of tweens, teens, and young adults.
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The brand’s global president, Terrence Reilly, revamped it in 2020 and made women their target audience. Therefore, they designed these cups with new colors and designs, hoping to attract them. They also used many influencers on social media to promote the cups and show how good they were at keeping food at the preferred temperature.
This brilliant marketing strategy worked out great, and the ‘Quencher Cup’ is now arguably one of the most popular in the world. There was also a viral video of an accident in which the car got burnt, but the ice inside the Stanley cup at the passenger’s side was still intact.
This helped people believe in the strength of this cup, trusting its insulating ability. In 2023 alone, Stanley’s annual sales reportedly jumped from $75 million to $750 million.
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