{"id":1045344,"date":"2026-09-05T17:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1045344\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:42:35","slug":"this-l-a-toy-store-was-built-on-the-back-of-hello-kitty-then-the-tiktok-trolls-came-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1045344\/","title":{"rendered":"This L.A. toy store was built on the back of Hello Kitty. Then the TikTok trolls came for it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The little L.A. shop was a destination for Hello Kitty fans for decades when it decided to dive into a massive new wave of e-commerce \u2014 peddling its products live on TikTok. <\/p>\n

The first floor of the JapanLA store is stuffed with stuffed toys. It houses shelf after shelf of cute Japanese characters such as My Melody and Kuromi. Upstairs is the real money maker. Employees stand in front of phones, pitching the hottest new products of kawaii (cute in Japanese) culture. <\/p>\n

While the upstairs business has brought in tens of thousands of new customers and hundreds of thousands of dollars, it has also attracted trolls trying to shut JapanLA down. The haters have hacked the store\u2019s website, harassed its hosts, spread rumors about its owner, and threatened to show up in force in front of its physical store. <\/p>\n

JapanLA owner Jamie Rivadeneira says she has never seen cute consumers turn so ugly. <\/p>\n

\u201cI created JapanLA 20 years ago for adults who like cute stuff, so they can feel safe and feel like it\u2019s OK to like toys and collect them,\u201d she said. \u201cTo attack me is so opposite of what I stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a cautionary tale that points to the potential profit and pitfalls when small local businesses push back against the onslaught of e-commerce by using technology to reach a wider audience. It also demonstrates how the Labubu craze \u2014 in which people keep buying blind boxes of the same toys in hopes of getting a rare, expensive one \u2014 has turned some shops into casinos.<\/p>\n

Rivadeneira was ahead of the curve when she opened a small toy shop in 2006 on a street off Melrose Avenue selling items featuring Hello Kitty and other Japanese characters. <\/p>\n

From its early days, the store, called JapanLA, harnessed the internet to promote its products, using MySpace to connect with what was at the time a niche community: Los Angeles fans of kawaii culture. As kawaii culture went mainstream, JapanLA grew into a 5,000-square-foot retail space on La Brea Avenue with more than 20 employees.<\/p>\n

\"Owner <\/p>\n

Owner and founder Jamie Rivadeneira holds a box of Sonny Angels at JapanLA.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Although its store continues to attract a steady flow of walk-in customers looking for the cutting edge of cute, JapanLA\u2019s business has been turbo-charged in recent years by livestream shopping. <\/p>\n

Livestream shopping, also called social commerce<\/a>, is like the old cable shopping channels, but there are millions of shows, each serving a very specific niche, broadcasting live. The hosts interact with the shoppers watching. It started in Asia, is worth hundreds of billions of dollars in sales, and has been growing fast in the U.S. <\/p>\n

JapanLA first dabbled in livestream shopping during the pandemic lockdown, when it had to close its store. It started on a platform called Popshoplive to sell Hello Kitty and other items, but sales didn\u2019t skyrocket until it switched to TikTok Shop in 2023. <\/p>\n

\"Kelly <\/p>\n

Kelly Parks broadcasts a JapanLA auction on TikTok.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Today, JapanLA\u2019s TikTok account has nearly 400,000 followers and hosts seven-hour livestream shopping sessions six days a week. The shop\u2019s 12 bubbly livestream hosts have turned into micro-celebrities. Their customers comment in the livestream\u2019s chat, order hundreds of products during a session, and sometimes send tips and the occasional boba. <\/p>\n

Uma Karmarkar, an associate professor at UC San Diego who studies consumer psychology, said livestreams are effective at getting consumers to spend more because they are engaging and temporary \u2014 meaning they tap into people\u2019s fear of missing out on a rare opportunity.<\/p>\n

When it comes to collectible blind boxes, the effect is heightened, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re adding to that element of scarcity that makes blind boxes so appealing in the first place,\u201d Karmarkar said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re getting, and it\u2019s effectively like gambling.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Various <\/p>\n

Various Smiski boxes lie in a box for clients at JapanLA.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

JapanLA\u2019s chat and sales exploded in the last two years, driven by demand for the cherubic figurines of a Japanese doll named Sonny Angels. <\/p>\n

For certain consumers, it was the new Labubu:<\/a> cute and collectible, sold in blind boxes, with certain types being rare and thus much more valuable. <\/p>\n

Sonny Angels are three-inch plastic dolls that are generally naked, except for themed headgear and costumes. <\/p>\n

JapanLA had unique access to the suddenly popular toys, as it had stocked Sonny Angels for 15 years. It originally had a niche following, but the fan base blew up in recent years. It was even at the center of a \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d sketch<\/a> featuring singer Dua Lipa.<\/p>\n

\"JapanLA <\/p>\n

JapanLA is still selling thousands of Sonny Angel dolls, but bids now tend to stay around $20.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

JapanLA was auctioning the rarest Sonny Angels for hundreds of dollars, and that started bothering some fans of the chubby, pantless collectibles. In July, while taking bids for figurines from the Sonny Angels summer vacation-themed collection, one of the rare ones got a bid of more than $400. Some viewers used screenshots of the offer to accuse JapanLA of gouging.<\/p>\n

Online detractors shared screenshots of the supposed $400 bid in a Sonny Angel collectors Facebook group with more than 30,000 members and launched a form-letter campaign, mass-emailing Dreams USA to try to get JapanLA\u2019s retail license revoked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trump supporters, what do you expect? Grifters,\u201d one anonymous commenter said in the Facebook group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cReport them for hoarding,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n

During livestream shopping sessions, JapanLA\u2019s hosts received a flood of mean comments, including insults about their physical appearance and accusations that they were racist. Bad actors entered live auctions to place fake bids on items for up to $1,000 before letting the payments fail, she said.<\/p>\n

A TikTok user made a dedicated account to \u201ccancel\u201d Japan. A flood of anonymous commenters spread rumors that JapanLA\u2019s owner supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rivadeneira denies the claims. A hacking attack even shut down JapanLA\u2019s website for a day. <\/p>\n

One Discord user posted a threat to hand out hundreds of fliers at the store\u2019s physical Sonny Angel launch event later that morning, falsely claiming that owners supported ICE to discourage would-be shoppers. The agitator never appeared, but the threat left the staff on edge throughout the day. <\/p>\n

The company tried to report and block the trolls, but they kept popping up with new profiles. It hired a PR firm to manage the unfolding crisis. Rivadeneira said she even scrubbed her personal social media accounts of photos of her young daughter after trolls began attacking loved ones.<\/p>\n

JapanLA turned to Dreams, the company behind Sonny Angels, for support. The two companies decided to change the way the figurines were auctioned to avoid the gouging narrative. Now they are auctioned before they are opened rather than after, so bidders don\u2019t know what they are getting. <\/p>\n

Jackie Bonheim, a spokesperson for Dreams USA, said that while the company received a flood of form-letter emails from angry Sonny Angels fans, the company cannot set a maximum retail price. <\/p>\n

\"Ava <\/p>\n

Ava B. showcases and unboxes a Sonny Angel during a TikTok live auction at JapanLA.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

JapanLA is still selling thousands of Sonny Angel dolls, but bids now tend to stay around $20. <\/p>\n

Some fans miss the days when they would know ahead of time if they were getting a really rare one. <\/p>\n

Nicole Fani, 40, snapped up a rare \u201csecret\u201d unicorn Sonny Angel for more than $300 because she had to have it for her collection of hundreds of the figures. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to say for anybody else they should be spending that much,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was worth it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fani, a Brentwood artist, considers her collection an extension of her art and has embellished some with Swarovski crystals. Because she avoids buying secondhand Sonny Angels due to potential fakes, she would have probably spent more buying dozens of sealed blind boxes in the hopes of pulling the unicorn figure.<\/p>\n

JapanLA\u2018s owner says her team is working every day to block and silence trolls. She\u2018s still reeling from how quickly her business went from a bumper batch of orders to battling for its life. <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said. \u201cAll it takes is a few people to say bad things or say things about JapanLA, things about me, that aren\u2019t true, for it to just go crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The little L.A. shop was a destination for Hello Kitty fans for decades when it decided to dive…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1045345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[95592,255630,1582,276,638,418405,74735,16217,418404,418400,2961,418403,224,5337,46750,418401,2397,97968,418402,1628],"class_list":["post-1045344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bid","tag-blind-box","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-company","tag-dreams-usa","tag-early-day","tag-flood","tag-hello-kitty-fan","tag-japanla-store","tag-la","tag-livestream-shopping","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-owner","tag-sonny-angels","tag-tiktok","tag-troll","tag-worth-hundred","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117219673638638832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}