A version of the following article appeared in the Monday, August 10, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Avery McCall, 12, was hunting for squishies with friends on a recent afternoon at Harper & Skyler’s Toys & Sweets, a toy store in Park Road Shopping Center. (Photo by Michelle Crouch for The Ledger)
by Michelle Crouch
For most of its history, Charlotte’s Fable gift shop rarely had teenage customers. The quirky boutique, which moved to Ballantyne Village from Madison Park in 2022, specializes in home décor, battery-free toys, jewelry and gifts.
But the moment a clerk unlocked the door on a recent Saturday, middle and high school students streamed in, some with younger siblings and parents in tow. A few minutes later, about a dozen were crowded around a colorful display near the checkout counter.
The teens and tweens were hunting for one thing: NeeDoh squishies.
The soft, squeezable stress toys went viral earlier this year and quickly became this summer’s must-have item. With demand outpacing supply, NeeDoh retailers in Charlotte and across the country are coping with crowds of squishy seekers, constant phone calls, empty shelves and occasional bad behavior from adults taking advantage of the craze.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Fable owner Susan Sloan-Lieb. “Yes, it’s caused chaos. Thank goodness my non-squishy-buying customers have been so kind and understanding.”
To control the chaos and better serve her customers, Sloan-Leib said she moved the squishy display to the front of the store, hired more help and limited sales to two per person. She also answers 50-plus Instagram messages each night from people asking what she has in stock, then wakes up early to search for inventory.
“I’m up at 4 a.m. looking for squishies,” she said. “The good ones are hard to find.”
NeeDohs have been around since 2017, but became popular this year after a flurry of social media videos showed influencers squeezing and smooshing them. Ranging in price from $2 to $20, they come in all colors, shapes and sizes. Some of the most popular NeeDohs are shaped like cubes, “fuzz balls” and popsicles.
Other squishy items, such as RMS dumplings, Speks and blobs filled with coconut oil, are also trending, store owners said.
‘Like Christmas every day’
At Harper & Skyler’s Toys & Sweets in Park Road Shopping Center, owner Dan Weiss said the demand has been unlike anything he’s seen before. Families have driven in from as far as Atlanta and Tennessee, he said.
“It’s nuts. It’s like Christmas every day,” he said. “I had to hire two or three extra people just to stay on top of it.”
The shop limits NeeDoh sales to four per family, Weiss said. In March, the store also started selling $50 “mystery boxes” that contain five squishies (including one guaranteed NeeDoh) and a half pound of candy.
The boxes have been popular – Weiss said he’s sold hundreds – so he recently introduced bigger boxes. The $250 “Ultimate Squishy Mystery Box,” which debuted earlier in July, promises 15 squishes, including eight NeeDohs and two dumplings, along with a pound of candy. Weiss said he sold more than a dozen in the first two days they were on sale.
A shelf at Toys & Sweets displays purchase limits on popular NeeDoh squishies. (Photo by Michelle Crouch for The Ledger)
On a recent afternoon, a crowd of middle-schoolers took turns squeezing and comparing the store’s unboxed samples before choosing a few to buy.
Among them was 12-year-old Avery McCall. Avery, who already has five squishies at home, said they’re fun to play with, but what she likes even more is hunting for them with friends. Young collectors often share tips on social media about which Charlotte shops have them in stock, she said.
She and other kids told The Ledger that if you’re lucky, you can find NeeDohs at the following local retailers, in addition to Fable and Toys & Sweets: Toy Mania in Cotswold, the Mole Hole gift shop off Colony Road and national chains including Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble and Five Below.
“I know people who wake up at 3 a.m. and wait in a two-hour line at Walmart or camp out for them on the days they are known to restock,” Avery said. “My mom thinks it’s crazy.”
Trend creates challenges
While the squishy trend has boosted the bottom line for small shops, it also has created challenges, shop owners said. Packages get opened, inventory disappears and some adults cut lines and try to cheat the purchasing limits.
“There’s a lot of greed out there,” Weiss said. “We try to have a limit per family, but we have people paying separately who say they aren’t related but walk out together and get in the same car.”
Another problem that has recently surfaced: Squishies can explode if they get too hot, potentially causing burns. In response, shops have posted signs warning families not to leave them in a hot car and urging kids not to microwave them (which, inexplicably, is the latest viral trend).
Sloan-Lieb said she had to stop posting on social media about “restocks” or “drops” when she got new inventory. The two times she did it, people lined up before the store opened, creating a frenzy and leading to disappointed customers when the product sold out.
“It wasn’t fair to working parents who couldn’t get out and get in line,” she said. “Now, I kind of hoard it, and then I put it on the floor in little bits, usually on weekends or at times when kids may be in the store. Then they get to experience the excitement instead of mom having to be out there at 5 o'clock in the morning.”
Ryan and Ainsley Reeves of Waxhaw picked out dumpling squishies at Fable in Ballantyne. Part of the fun, they said, is that you don’t know which dumpling is inside until you open the package. (Photo by Michelle Crouch for The Ledger)
Better than a screen
On a recent Saturday, Waxhaw mom Noelle Reeves was squishy hunting at Fable with her children, Ainsley, 14, and Rylan, 11. She said her kids have been collecting NeeDohs since last fall, when they were easy to find and it was fun to see each new shape that came out.
“It’s absolutely insane now,” she said. “It’s all about being on social media, knowing when they pop up, and then chasing after it.”
Even so, she said, she sees an upside to the trend. The squishies help her son stay focused while doing schoolwork, she said, and they give her kids something to do with their hands besides reach for a screen.
Ainsley agrees:
“If I’m sitting down and there’s nothing in my hands, I get kind of weirded out,” she said. “Before, I would scroll on my phone. But now I can just play with my squishies.”
Michelle Crouch is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to The Ledger.