Chaos on Queen Street West in downtown Toronto ensued over the weekend after a popular retail store announced it would be giving away free sweatshirts.
In a TikTok video from Nov. 16, uncontrollable crowds of mostly teenagers are seen lined up at the new Pink Palm Puff headquarters on Queen Street West, situated between Garage and Brandy Melville stores.
Some people reportedly showed up as early as 9 a.m. after hearing the store would be giving away a limited number of free sweatshirts from Thursday, Nov. 14 to Saturday, Nov. 16.
However, many of the people there were angry they weren’t able to receive a sweatshirt due to poor management.
In the video, they’re heard saying, “It was your bad management,” “bad marketing,” “you hurt a lot of people,” and “wasted a lot of peoples’ time.”
On Nov. 15, Pink Palm Puff posted on one of their accounts that they won’t be able to give out more free hoodies on Saturday because they ran out.
Pink Palm Puff was founded by a 16-year-old girl named Lily Balaisis who gained popularity all over social media posting content about her beach-inspired lounge wear brand in the past year, appealing to primarily other teen and tween girls.
A week before the free sweatshirt giveaway, the founder also gave out a few random sweatshirts to pedestrians in the city.
Now Toronto reached out to Pink Palm Puff but they did not acknowledge the criticism about the hoodie giveaway and instead said there will be more special experiences in the future by invitation only.
Online, some Torontonians are excited about the new store.
“Will you guys do this again on every Thursday and Saturday?” one person said on Tik Tok.
“I wish I lived closer because this is too cuteee,” another Tik Toker user said.
Meanwhile, others are confused about the hype around the sweatshirts.
“They said limited at random times. What did they expect?,” another Tik Toker said.
“Do people not realize that just because something is free it still costs your time? I’d never be waiting in line for a free hoodie,” one person commented.
“lmao it’s a pink hoodie with a palm tree printed on it,” another person said.
Many residents and spectators also posted their own TikTok videos about the long lineups.
“It is the most basic looking pink hoodie with some embroidery on it…. There is no reason for you to be waiting outside in the cold for hours for a hoodie you can get literally anywhere,” one TikToker said.
