Occurred on January 31, 2021 / Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan
Info from Licensor: "This particular location and only a single other location in Yokohama is where people are able to purchase a ps5 from a store directly without any purchase requirements such as membership etc, so they created their own perfect storm in a way that was getting worse and worse week to week, and today it all came to a head. The staff never gave clear information, which caused the crowds to grow in size and never disperse. Customers were asking staff if any ps5's will be sold today. The staff reply that they have no stock and restocking is undecided. Because the answer is so vague, they were hoping people would leave, but more often than not, they'd release a large batch of ps5s later that day. So that's one problem that caused the crowds to linger and grow over time. Nobody trusts the store staff regarding stock even when told that nothing is in stock. They have been selling a few hundred ps5s per day, about 3 days per week give or take. Because the staff was not providing updates to the large number of people waiting, people were watching everything extremely carefully for any sign of incoming product. The staff area suddenly cleaned up a large empty area and some of the staff gathered privately out of sight to talk. This put a bunch of people on edge. Then about 15 staff in a line arrived and one member in that line was holding a stack of what looked to be about 300 tickets. Usually, people form a line and get a ticket and with that ticket are able to purchase a ps5. The crowd, however, saw this person, and because there were clearly more patrons than tickets nobody waited for instruction or an announcement and just swarmed the staff. To the point that displays were ruined, the staff had to climb onto tables, the cash registers and main sales counter were pushed back into the storage area. Customers currently paying for other goods were pushed out of the way. When this happened, after about 15 seconds, the staff began yelling for everyone to go home and the sale was canceled. About 10 minutes later, police arrived to help disperse anyone lingering."
Back