Shelling out the equivalent of two dollars for a cup of coffee might pinch the pocket, yet dropping around 50 dollars on a plush toy shaped like a coffee cup seems completely reasonable. There is a trend among the young in China of shifting toward "emotional spending," where value is placed more on the emotional appeal of items than on their practical utility.

On September 21, a coffee-themed pop-up store was opened by British toy brand Jellycat in the center of Shanghai. Despite being called a coffee shop, there are no actual coffee drinks available—instead, the shop features plush toys shaped like coffee-related products and various desserts. The price for an Amuseables Yulannia Latte plush is 359 yuan ($50), and a Taro Cake plush costs the same. The staff members mimic the real food packaging process, performing actions like "topping cream" and "seasoning" on the plush coffee and cakes, creating a magical display.

The store has become very popular. Entry requires a reservation, which has been very hard to obtain. Once inside, shopping time is limited to 15 minutes. Many young people queue for one to two hours just to make a purchase. "It wasn't easy to get a reservation, and the store was filled with people my age," a 26-year-old customer surnamed Xie told Shanghai Daily. "The store is set up like a fairy tale world, and the pretend packaging process is like playing house. Those who don't like it might find it awkward, but those who do are thoroughly enjoying themselves, getting emotional value."

Fluffy company

The popularity of plush toys has emerged as a new trend among the young in China in recent years. Taking Jellycat as an example, the price of the plush toys has been increasing, often leading to supply shortages.

The price of its plush eggplant has risen from over 300 yuan ($42) to more than 600 yuan ($84), and the price of plush hamburgers has also increased three times within a few months. In Jellycat's online flagship store on China's leading e-commerce platform Taobao, a 459 yuan ($64) plush Barcelona bear has registered over 80,000 sales so far, with monthly sales exceeding 3,000, and the 999 yuan ($140) Bonnie rabbit has been purchased by more than 20,000 people.

According to the 2023 annual report on the protection of consumer rights in China released by the China Consumers Association, emotional release will be an important factor influencing the consumption decisions of the younger generation in 2024. The popularity of plush toys and other toys among young consumers reflects their willingness to pay for emotional value. To complete their desired toy collections, many consumers are even willing to spend tens of thousands of yuan (thousands of U.S. dollars), which in turn has pushed up the market prices of some products.

Recently reported data from the China Toy and Juvenile Products Association showed that those born between 2000 and 2010 have become the main consumer group in the plush toy market, accounting for 43 percent, followed closely by the those born in the 1990s, who make up 36 percent.

"Most of us born in the 1990s are the only child of their respective families, lacking siblings. Plush toys were many of our childhood companions, and even as adults, we are still drawn to cute plush toys," Han Yufei, a 27-year-old in Beijing, told Beijing Review. "The soft touch of plush toys can be very comforting when work and life bring setbacks."

Han has a panda plush toy, a birthday gift from her mother when she was seven years old. It has grown up with her, accompanying her to Beijing for university and later to work as she entered the workforce. It has moved with her twice, always by her side. Besides the panda, she has recently taken a liking to plush toys shaped like vegetables and fruits. "Compared to animals like pandas, vegetables and fruits appear more frequently in our daily lives and feel closer to us," she said.

With the popularity of spicy hot pot, a local snack that became famous in Tianshui, Gansu Province, earlier this year, the Gansu Museum launched a spicy hot pot series of plush toys. A spicy hot pot plush bouquet, consisting of mushrooms, potato balls, broccoli and baby cabbage, is sold for 69 yuan ($10). Staff members place the plush "ingredients" into a big plush pot and start "stirring the pot" and serve it to customers after it is "done." The marketing tactic has made the Gansu Museum a popular destination among young travelers.

Embracing emotions

On China's leading lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, many young people share how they treat their plush toys as companions in life, bringing them along for meals, work and travel. Some even set up social media accounts for their toys, sharing daily life from the perspective of the plush toys.

There's a man in his thirties on Xiaohongshu known as the Head of Bread Village, who frequently shares his adventures with his two plush toys—one shaped like a sloth, named Bread, and the other shaped like a hedgehog. During a trip to Spain in this June, he accidentally lost Bread and posted a search notice on social media, tearfully expressing his attachment to Bread.

Many people joined in the search, and numerous users shared their own stories with their plush toys, closely following the incident. Fortunately, he eventually found Bread. This incident made the plush toy named Bread a temporary internet sensation, and even boosting its sales.

Along with plush toys, a variety of products designed for stress relief and emotional release have captured the hearts of young consumers, some of which intriguingly exist only in virtual form. In a notable shift in consumer trends, Taobao's 2023 roundup of the year's top 10 products highlighted "Einstein's Brain" as a distinctive entry. This is the first time a virtual item made the annual list. The product is listed at just a few cents. Once purchased, customer service representatives engage in chats designed to uplift and motivate the buyer.

According to data from Tianyancha, a leading corporate information provider in China, there are currently over 3,700 "emotion"-related patents in the market. This surge indicates a growing corporate emphasis on leveraging emotional value as a significant business strategy.

Nan Yu, an associate researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, points out that today's younger consumers are pursuing more than mere products; they seek what could be termed an "emotional massage."

"The new consumption philosophy embraced by the youth, who are readily investing in emotional value, is continually inspiring businesses to innovate and create new consumption scenarios," she told Beijing Daily. "This is leading to the emergence of a distinctive emotional economy."

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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