REPORTAGE. "Out of stock, at least until mid-June" : stores facing shortage of Panini stickers for the World Cup

“There is a total break on stickers, at least until mid-June. Already this morning I have had between five and ten requests,” explains Samuel, at the head of a small Parisian bookstore. As the first match of the Football World Cup takes place on Thursday June 11, customers flock in search of stickers to fill the Panini album. This year, with 48 teams, compared to 32 previously, you have to buy 980 stickers for a complete album.

A break for which Samuel cannot explain the cause, but he has noticed a significant enthusiasm and number of sales since the release of the stickers a month ago. “I sold a good thirty or forty albums, and almost 2,000 stickers.” This is the last World Cup in this format, since the contract with Fifa and Panini will end after the 2030 World Cup, putting an end to sixty years of collaboration.

Juliette, 11 years old, no longer has any stickers to put in her album. “I keep it very carefully, it’s a photo of the players, it’s very important,” says the teenager. She spreads out all her cards in the middle of her living room, classified by country, by players and by duplicates, but she is missing a lot. To continue filling in the boxes and follow the matches from Thursday with her album on her knees, she is asking the whole family to contribute. “My dad has to, when he comes home from work, go to a tobacconist and, like that, he buys me some. My grandfather, he sent me some labels, Juliet list. My godfather came to watch the Champions League at my house, so he bought me some at the same time. My mom buys me less, but I still ask her to buy me some because it’s important.”

“Instead of buying six at once, I’ll buy more, that way I won’t need to buy more”concludes Juliette, worried about the shortage of stickers. A quasi treasure hunt which has a certain cost: more than 150 euros have already been spent on his collection. “The covers cost 1.5 euros, so it seems reasonable. It’s over time that we realize that, in the end, it still costs a little bit of money, slide it, Piérine. And then, she also uses her pocket money for that.”

Juliette hopes that the stores will be restocked quickly, but she is categorical: she will not stop her collection of Panini cards until she has found the 18 players of the French football team.