On Dec. 15, 1983, nine lucky shoppers at the Pay Less drug store in Roseville won a Cabbage Patch Kids doll after a drawing. The drawing occurred amid the “Cabbage Patch Riots” that rocked stores throughout North America in the fall and winter of 1983. Stores typically stocked between 200 and 500 Cabbage Patch dolls, but with each store seeing demand in the thousands, customers became angry and even violent.
The Cabbage Patch Kids dolls came with adoption papers and had an initial retail price of $21, but many shoppers watched that price climb to $50, $75 and even $100 in some stores. In the classified sections of newspapers throughout the country were advertisements for either legitimate Cabbage Patch Kids dolls (usually for hundreds of dollars) or knock-off versions.
Demand was high even after the holidays, but by Christmas of 1984 retailers had learned their lesson and made sure to have enough dolls in stock to meet demand. The dolls remained popular for a few more years until the end of the 1980s, when demand significantly waned.
After slipping back into old habits, retailers would face such toy crazes again with the Tickle Me Elmo doll in 1996 and Hatchimals in 2016, but neither would approach the madness and violence of the Cabbage Patch Riots of 1983.
From our collection: Cabbage Patch Kids doll, c. 1987
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