The waitlist for a box of frozen beef croquettes from a family-run company in Japan has tripled from nearly a decade to 30 years, according to reports.
Asahiya, a butcher shop located in Takasago City in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, has been selling meat products since 1926, but its Kobe beef croquettes are one of its best-selling items.
According to CNN, the waitlist for the frozen croquettes, which are made with Kobe beef and locally grown potatoes, has soared to more than 30 years.
In April, a woman tweeted that she had finally received her order of the croquettes - nearly nine years after she first ordered them.
The woman, who goes by her Twitter username @hayasino, placed the order on 8 September 2013. At the time, she was told the wait would be seven and a half years.
But a delay caused by a bad crop of the potatoes that Asahiya uses for the croquettes prolonged the wait. The customer tweeted that she received her order on 28 April 2022, adding: “The croquettes I’ve been waiting nine years for are here!”
The popularity of the croquettes can be attributed to their affordability. When Asahiya first launched them, they were priced at just US$1.80 (approximately £1.50) per piece, despite the beef in them costing around US$2.70 (£2.30) per piece.
On the butcher’s website, it warns customers that they may be in for a 32 year-long wait if they order the croquettes today.
Shigeru Nitta, the third-generation owner of Asahiya, told CNN: “We made affordable and tasty croquettes that demonstrate the concept of our shop as a strategy to have customers enjoy the croquettes and then hope that they would buy our Kobe beef after the first try.”
The shop stopped taking orders for the croquettes in 2016 because the waiting list grew to more than 14 years, but they received “many calls requesting to keep offering them”, Nitta added.
The price is now higher, but the food items remain affordable. Each box of croquettes, which has five pieces, costs US$18.40 (£15.69).
Customers receive a regular newsletter with updates on the latest waiting times and are informed of delivery a week prior.
