The 1983 “Cabbage Patch Riots” sound almost mythical now.

I’m old enough to remember it well. Parents literally wrestling in store aisles. Clerks getting trampled. Someone drove 1,000 miles to find a fugly little doll. Police had to break up fights.

For a toy.

Three years later, it was Teddy Ruxpin. Then Tickle Me Elmo in ’96, when a Walmart worker suffered a broken rib in the rush. Furby drove shoppers wild in ’98.

Today’s hot toys? A plush croissant with legs. A weighted ball. An AI storytelling bear.

Fine products. But don’t hold your breath for any actual hysteria.

What changed?

The internet fragmented our attention. Social algorithms create micro-trends instead of mass phenomena.

Online shopping eliminated scarcity-driven store rushes. (When it’s gone, it’s gone. Who ya gonna fight with on Amazon?)

But something else shifted too. Those classic crazes worked because they hit three crucial triggers:

• Genuine scarcity (not manufactured)
• Social proof (playground status)
• Parental embarrassment (failing to nab the “must-have” gift)

Today’s market is:

• More accessible (get anything, anywhere, fairly fast — except in Rural Canada if the current postal strike continues)
• Less concentrated
• Highly personalized
• Algorithm-driven

For product makers, this means both challenge and opportunity.

While mass hysteria may be harder to create, finding your specific audience is easier than ever.

The question isn’t “How do we create the next Cabbage Patch Kid?”

It’s more like, “How do we matter deeply to exactly the right people?”

Laurier

P.S. This year’s trending plush croissant has 57 MILLION TikTok posts. But you can order one right now with two-day shipping. Kind of sucks the excitement away, doesn’t it? 👊