Starbucks China recently launched a limited-edition cat paw mug on Feb. 28.

Fighting over the mug

Only 1,000 mugs are available each day for sale, and each mug costs RMB199 (approximately S$40.14) -- making it highly coveted.

People even reportedly queued overnight to get their hands on the adorable product.

However, the cuteness of the mug and scarcity proved too much, as fights broke out among Starbucks customers all wanting to purchase it.

[video width="720" height="1280" mp4="https://static.mothership.sg/1/2019/03/starbucks-china-cute-cat-paw-mugs-fight.mp4"][/video]

The cups were later resold online for as much as RMB1000 (approximately S$202).

The hype also supposedly resulted in a rather hilarious conversation too.

(Chatting with a friend who works at Starbucks)

Hey dear, you there?

Friend: No more cat paw mugs.

Remaining 3,000 cups sold online instead

Following these incidents, the company stated that the remaining 3,000 cups will be sold on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Tmall instead.

They will also be getting 4,000 more mugs to meet the demand.

This was announced on Starbucks China's lengthy Weibo post on March 1, 2019:

Thank you friends, for the overwhelming support for our cat paw mugs in our new Sakura series.

We apologise for not being able to let everyone own a "meow". But this is definitely not a so-called "scarcity marketing" tactic.

We work hard at pushing out new products every season. Our shops sell a fixed quantity of the new product. Our marketing strategy for the “cat paw” mugs aren’t different from the other products we have released previously.

We have not expected such a situation to occur, but we appreciate everyone's passion for this product. Therefore, after the "cat paw" mugs were snapped up at our outlets, and having received feedback from our customers through various channels, we underwent a serious evaluation and came to a decision.

We will put in an order for 4,000 more of the mugs. To let every customer have a fair chance at purchasing the mugs, we will not sell them at our physical outlets.

Rather, the mugs will be sold on third-party online platforms.

The response we received yesterday (Feb. 28) was extremely overwhelming. All 1,000 mugs available were snapped up shortly after they were released.

Therefore, we have decided to cancel the original plan to sell 1,000 mugs each day on March 2 and 3.

Instead, all remaining 3,000 mugs will be released today (March 1) at 3pm on our Starbucks Tmall online shop.

We do not encourage, nor condone any forms of scalping. As for the current situation of our products getting mixed up with the fakes, we sincerely remind all customers to exercise caution when making your online purchases.

We are flattered to have received this much love and support from our customers. Once again, we apologise to those who like our product but were unable to buy it.

Thank you everyone, for letting us have such a precious experience. We will continue to work hard at creating even better products to reciprocate your love.

Top image adapted via Real original goods & Jiangsu News