After 5 years of selling out its London pop-ups, Pokémon needs a permanent store

If a multi-story M&M’s store can survive in London, then so can a permanent Pokémon Center.

This weekend, the Pokémon Center returned to London for the fifth time. The store, which is housed at London’s ExCell Center alongside the Pokémon European International Championships, has once again proved a massive success.

Reservations to enter the store have been sold out for weeks, and when VGC visited the event, we witnessed plenty of devastated fans turned away at the door, unaware that the shop required a booking weeks ago.

This has been the case for every Pokémon Center pop-up after the first one, which saw multi-hour queues and exclusive merchandise selling out. Even with the reservation system, which saw 2024’s event be far more organized than the Pikachu-plush-flavoured chaos of the past, the place was still absolutely packed, and staff were fighting against the tide of shoppers to try to restock merchandise.

So then why, after all of this huge success, is The Pokémon Company so hesitant to open a permanent location? Currently, there are more than ten Pokemon Centers in Asia, and even more Pokémon stores, which are smaller shops that carry some merchandise, but not the full Pokémon Center line.

There are zero Pokémon Centers in Europe. There are zero in North America. This wasn’t always the case. Nintendo fans who’ve visited New York City are likely familiar with the Nintendo World Store that sits in Rockefeller Plaza. The multi-story shop is part Nintendo shop, part event space, and has held console launches, parties, and Nintendo Direct Viewing parties for years.

Before the conversion into the Nintendo World Store, that location was North America’s first, and so far only, Pokémon Center. The store, which was opened in November 2001, sold merchandise that was exclusively sold in the store, as well as distribution events that let players obtain rare and exclusive Pokémon on their GameBoy devices.

The launch of the Pokémon Center New York was at the height of PokeMania, but, in some ways, it was slightly too late. Like any fad, PokeMania saw a dip after its absolute white-hot hype of the late 90s.

As Pokémon approached the third generation of games, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the popularity of the franchise began to fall, as did interest in merchandise from the franchise, as the generation of kids that grew up with Ash, Brock, Misty, and Pikachu began to age out.

The Pokémon Center New York closed in 2005, and would later re-open as the catch-all Nintendo World Store.

I wonder if this rare failure by The Pokémon Company has contributed to it being so hesitant to spread its retail wings outside of its home region. A new Pokemon Center has opened almost every year for the last decade. In some cases, multiple have opened in the same year.

Exclusive merch featuring each store’s unique mascot Pokémon have become holy grail items for fans outside of Japan who can’t simply take the train to multiple Pokémon Centers in one day.

It could be argued that The Pokémon Center in London has been so successful because it only operates for a few days every year, but we think there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that it could be a huge tourist attraction if a permanent home was found.

There are multiple Harry Potter shops in London, multiple Lego stores, and an M&M’S store that just this weekend saw tourists stand in 30-minute queues to get inside and buy chocolate you can get in Asda. Does The Pokémon Company think that a permanent Pokémon Center somewhere like Leceister Square wouldn’t be like a Royal Rumble at every new product drop?

When The Pokemon Company collaborated with the Van Gogh Museum last year, staff at the museum store were fired for conspiring to smuggle out the sought-after merch. The demand for Pokémon products across multiple generations is absolutely massive.

We predict we may see a test run for a permanent Pokémon Center in the West once Pokémon make their appearance as part of Nintendo’s collaboration with Universal Studios theme parks. While there are currently parades featuring Pokémon at the parks in Japan, a full-scale land dedicated to Pokemon feels inevitable, perhaps only halted by the web of different companies that hold the ownership of the brand.

As for a permanent store outside of the theme parks, London or New York feel like natural homes. The demand in London is clear, with a “See you next year,” sign at the exit of 2024’s Pokémon Center suggesting the mega-popular shop will return in 2025. Anyone who has visited London lately knows there are plenty of vacant lots/American sweet shops near London’s busiest tourist spots that Pokémon could establish as a natural home.

As for New York, right next door to the Nintendo World Store would also make sense. Nintendo fans already flock to the area just for Nintendo items, so a Pokémon Center next door would only accelerate that. It would also serve as a nice full-circle moment for the franchise, which was unceremoniously removed from its New York home due to declining popularity, to return as the most successful media property in the history of the world.