McDonald’s Launches Rules to Curb Demon Slayer Happy Meal Scalpers

Demon Slayer is one of the most lucrative franchises out there these days, and it shows no signs of slowing down. With a second season in the works, Tanjiro and his friends are living a luxurious life amongst anime royalty. Now, Demon Slayer is getting a special tribute from the folks at McDonald’s thanks to a toy campaign, but it has forced the fast-food chain to instate some new rules.

After all, everyone wants to meet up with Tanjiro, and scalpers aren’t afraid to target Happy Meals if need be. That is why McDonald’s has put forth new measures to prevent mass re-sales, but there is no telling whether or not the restriction will work.

According to Anime News Network, McDonald’s Japan has introduced some new countermeasures in light of Demon Slayer scalpers. The issue first arose when the anime’s Happy Meal stickers surfaced on the online retailer Mercari before they even went public. This led to fans accusing McDonald’s of allowing workers to nab toys early, so the chain is attempting to nip that in the bud.

The new measures have asked McDonald’s stores to put up signage educating fans on the issues with scalping toys. The chain’s official website has also dedicated a page to the problem, and it encourages Demon Slayer fans to not engage in such behavior. But with these Happy Meals already selling out across Japan, the secondhand market may be the only thing fans can access.

This sort of issue is far from unusual as kid’s meals are no strangers to scalping. Here in the United States, this was experience recently when McDonald’s launched its Pokemon prize. Happy Meals came bundled with trading cards meant to celebrate Pokemon’s 25th anniversary, but scalpers began flipping the prizes around as soon as possible. The chain was forced to employ measures stateside to combat these resellers, and now Demon Slayer is undergoing the exact same woes.

What do you make of this new report? Did you ever expect Demon Slayer to cause McDonald’s such grief? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.