By Darissa Townes
On October 1, dozens of people came to Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta early in the morning to wait in line.
They weren’t waiting for concert tickets, nor were they waiting to get the best early deals on Halloween costumes. In fact, some of them were ALREADY dressed for the occasion. These people were in line in hopes of buying merchandise from the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck.
The truck, centered around the 1974 mascot for Japanese company Sanrio, was introduced in 2014 as part of a Hello Kitty Convention in Los Angeles. It began its country-wide tour in 2016, when the first Hello Kitty Cafe opened in Irvine, California this past July.
The food truck’s one-day only appearance in Atlanta this past Saturday brought in droves of fans young and old, wearing an assortment of Hello Kitty memorabilia like t-shirts, stuffed animals and cat ear headbands.
Although the event started at 10 a.m., crowds had gathered early on, so by the time I had arrived at 11 a.m., the lines were already looping around the central green space of the shopping center. Whispers amongst the guests suggested at least a two-hour wait and the line seemed to move more from weary parents leaving with their kids far too restless to wait, than from guests completing their purchases.
For those with enough patience, the cafe had a collection of Hello Kitty goodies like bow-shaped water bottles, coffee mugs, petit cakes, macarons and strawberry lemonades. Buying enough products even rewarded guests with a cute, pink tote bag to carry everything.
A Facebook page was created prior to the event, counting down the days until the cafe came to town. When the day was over, while there were a handful of people disappointed by the hefty wait times, an overwhelming majority of guests said that the wait was worth it, meeting tons of fellow Hello Kitty fans for a once in a millennia experience.
