Sold out in a row when displayed... 'Maple Bread' and 'Yonsei Milk Bread' are in such high demand they can't keep up [Issue Summary]

[Asia Economy PD Yoon Jin-geun] ‘MapleStory Bread’ and ‘Yonsei Milk Cream Bread’ are causing shortages at convenience stores and are gaining popularity with active secondhand trading among netizens.

Nexon and GS Retail have partnered to exclusively sell ‘MapleStory Bread’ at GS convenience stores nationwide since the 17th. MapleStory Bread is a product made using five popular characters from Nexon's 2003 online game ‘MapleStory.’

This bread contains one random sticker out of 80 types of ‘MapleStory’ game character stickers, and by collecting stamps through the GS Refrigerator application (app), customers can purchase ‘MapleStory’ game items.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, the bread display at a GS25 convenience store branch located in Jung-gu, Seoul. The 'MapleStory Bread' could not be found. On that day, more than 10 GS25 stores had no 'MapleStory Bread'. Photo by Jin-geun Yoon, PD

Since its release on the 17th, MapleStory Bread has been selling out daily. A GS25 official stated, “30,000 units of ‘MapleStory Bread’ were sold within five days of release,” adding, “50,000 units are produced daily and delivered to stores, and they sell out every day.”

Jin, a member of the idol group BTS, also joined the queue to purchase MapleStory Bread. On the first day of the bread’s release, the 17th, Jin posted a purchase verification photo of ‘MapleStory Bread’ on the social networking service Weverse, saying, “I went to 15 convenience stores.”

Netizens are trading and exchanging unopened MapleStory Bread or character stickers through online apps and other platforms.

The ‘Yonsei Milk Cream Bread’ series (Milk, Red Bean, Chocolate), released by CU in February, is also enjoying success. According to BGF Retail, the Yonsei Milk Cream Bread series was developed through a three-month recipe development collaboration between CU and Yonsei Dairy.

Yonsei Cream Bread is especially gaining word-of-mouth popularity among netizens. The YouTube channel ‘Eat or Not?’ posted a YouTube Shorts video titled ‘Bread that Korea University students somewhat avoid’ on the 10th, which has been viewed over 1.6 million times in 12 days.

A BGF Retail official explained that Yonsei Milk Cream Bread sold 500,000 units in March, the month following its release, ranking first to third in the company’s dessert product sales rankings.