This Is Why Stores Can’t Keep Elmer’s Glue On The Shelves

This tween obsession is causing a glue shortage

If your kid has a school project coming up that requires Elmer’s glue, you might be SOL. A new trend is causing tweens to snatch glue up like there’s no tomorrow, and people are sort of freaking out.

Kids are buying glue by the gallons to make slime, and stores are literally selling out of it. The homemade goo is made of a few ingredients including borax, food coloring and the main one: Elmer’s glue. The slime trend is the source of extreme internet fascination with videos of tweens and teens poking, prodding, and stretching the ooey-gooey stuff all over social media.

The craft “went mainstream” at the end of 2016, as the Wall Street Journal reported, and has had a huge impact on glue sales. The good news for the glue company; sales doubled in December as how-to videos started to go viral on social media sites. The bad news for customers; the glue is hard to find.

People are posting their frustrating glue adventures on Twitter, some with photos of empty shelves.

The slime craze is screwing over kindergartners, crafters, and DIYers alike, which is frustrating and hilarious all at the same time.

We don’t have to fret over the glue shortage for much longer, apparently. Elmer’s marketing director told the WSJ that the company has increased glue production to meet the demand. They also have teams now devoted to making slime videos and new products.

As a 90’s child I’m thrilled to see what new products the company comes up with because this new “slime” actually reminds me of Nickelodean Gak. It was sold in all different colors in little containers that you could keep in your pocket and play with anytime. You could bubble it, make cracking-gaky noises, and stretch it.

If you were in the car with your parents, and bored as shit (because literally the only thing you could do back then was stare out the window) you pulled out your gak. Or if the neighborhood kids came over, you’d just sit in circles and stretch the stuff.

Now thanks to the internet, kids can make slime or gak, or whatever you want to call it, by the shit-ton. Granted we get some more glue in our stores.