CVS Bets on Pokémon Cards and Blind Boxes to Drive Store Trips

Pokémon sales in the U.S. surged 87% year over year in 2025 to $2.5 billion, and CVS Pharmacy now wants a larger share of that spending. The retail arm of CVS Health announced Friday that it is expanding its assortment of toys, beauty, snacks and seasonal products, with an emphasis on collectibles, nostalgia and limited-edition items.

The new lineup includes Pokémon trading cards, blind-box collectibles and limited-time drops. Items are rolling out this fall at participating stores and on the company's website, according to a company press release. CVS is also introducing new brands and expanding existing offerings in these categories, responding to increased adult interest in toys and collectibles.

Zach Dennett, interim chief merchandising officer at CVS Health, framed the move around in-store discovery. "There's something exciting about finding a product you weren't expecting during an everyday shopping trip," Dennett said in a statement. "By regularly introducing new and unexpected finds at their local CVS, we're creating more moments of discovery and giving customers reasons to explore what's new every time they shop with us."

What does this change for the drugstore channel?

For years, collectibles lived in toy stores, hobby shops and specialty retailers such as Five Below. CVS is now positioning the everyday pharmacy run as a place where adults encounter impulse-driven, limited-stock products. The strategy ties merchandising directly to a documented shift in who buys toys: consumers aged 18 and over account for 35% of total industry growth, according to the source's cited data.

Expanded offerings named in the announcement include:

• Joyward Halloween Squishes
• Nook Nook Series 1 blind boxes
• Beauty Creations x Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas lip oils and serums
• Dunkin' pumpkin spice ground coffee

The squishy toy bet is backed by hard numbers. Squishy toys delivered triple-digit growth in both dollars and units sold in the first four months of the year, according to a June report by Circana. CVS is debuting exclusive squishies, a product category that has helped push revenue growth at Five Below, one of its competitors in the treasure-hunt retail format.

Pokémon carries equal weight in the decision. Beyond the 87% U.S. sales surge to $2.5 billion in 2025, Circana reported at the start of the year that Pokémon is the first brand in the last 20 years to exceed the $2 billion mark in annual sales. Stocking the trading cards places CVS inside the strongest licensed-brand run in modern toy retailing.

Why the timing matters

The rollout lands against a backdrop of rising toy prices ahead of the holiday season. Toy prices jumped 4.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from August to September, according to the Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Higher prices could pressure holiday budgets, yet they also reward retailers who can attach high-desire, moderate-ticket items to routine trips — exactly the behavior CVS's discovery merchandising is designed to capture.

For brand and trade marketers, the signal is clear: CVS is opening shelf space and e-commerce placement for limited-edition, nostalgia-adjacent products aimed at adult buyers. Suppliers that can deliver exclusive drops and timed releases now have a national pharmacy chain actively recruiting that assortment into the holiday season.