SHOPPING BEANIES
Shopping Beanies are those Beanies who are 'Store Exclusives' that is you can only buy them in a particular shop or chain of shops.
There have been a number of these over the years - and most have turned into a series with more than one Beanie for that particular store.
Who was the first store exclusive Beanie? There can be some debate over this point. In October 2002 Pompey was introduced to the Beanie community. Although initially only available to callers at the Club Shop of Portsmouth F.C. the bear was later to become available at retail.
In November 2002 Ty introduced Herschel. He was available only at Cracker Barrel restaurants across the US.
Cracker Barrel were to be joined by other US stores; Hallmark and Hallmark Gold Crown stores, Learning Express stores, Ideations stores and later Borders.
The shopping Beanie phenomenon wasn't limited
to the US, however. There are also exclusive Beanies that were available
from Harrods in London and Kitamura in Motomachi, Japan.
Collectors in the UK were surprised and delighted in 2006 to find that
the annual Harrod's Exclusive Beanies had been supplemented by some additional
'shopping' Beanies - Hamley's and Beales. All the more delighted because
even though there are both Borders and Hallmark stores in the UK the Beanies
exclusive to those shops weren't available in the UK!
Hallmark/Hallmark Gold Crown Beanies
Japanese Shopping Beanies