Zhengui Lin said he wanted customers to feel “overstimulated” when they walked into his Eagan claw arcade, which launched on New Year’s Day.
Full of flashing lights and machines stacked with plushies, Duck Entertainment bills itself as the largest claw arcade in the Twin Cities. It’s part of a growing trend of Asian-themed “clawcades” opening up in the Twin Cities, following the launch of Neko Clawww in Roseville in September and an expanded claw machine corner at Asia Mall in Eden Prairie.
Lin, 23, said the decision to open Duck was due to him “wanting to have fun” and his desire to leave the restaurant business for something with fewer employees to manage.
“I never really wanted to go to college. So I was always looking to start some business, or be my own boss. I don’t want to work for anybody,” Lin said.
Lin arrived in the United States at age 10 when his family moved from China to Long Island, New York. Five years later the family made Minnesota home.
After a stint at Costco, Lin resold goods on Amazon and then tried to manage a local Japanese buffet. During a visit to China and subsequent vacation in Japan, he got the idea for the claw machines.
“We have a lot of stuff like this in Asia, and when we moved to Minnesota, there was nothing like this. And we wanted to bring more fun, Asian-themed activities over here,” Lin said.
The shop features more than 100 Asian-themed claw machines, where customers can win different-sized plushies. Popular characters include Hello Kitty, Pokemon and other characters featured in Japanese anime shows.
The back corner of the shop also features 50 “gashapon” machines that dispense toys in small capsules.
Gashapon machines have a bigger presence in the Twin Cities, with the Rosedale Center featuring several dozen along with a popular Pop Mart Robo Shop.
Collectible and trendy toys are what keep people coming back to places like Duck and other clawcades and gashapon machines.
Staff members at Duck restock prizes throughout the day. According to Lin, the machines will have different plushies from day to day so customers can win new prizes.
Lin said he knew a claw arcade would be good for business but feared Minnesotans who weren’t familiar with the concept might not show up.
That’s why Duck also serves beverages like bubble tea and Korean shaved ice.
Startup costs for Duck were close to $1 million, Lin said, with funding coming from his own savings and family members after a bank turned him down.
Funding wasn’t his only problem starting up the business.
Duck became a tough sell for plaza owners who were looking for a “more attractive” tenant, according to Lin.
“We’re telling them it’s going to be like a claw machine arcade and they were thinking, like, the older style claw machines that you see at Walmart,” Lin said.
The custom-ordered claw machines took two months to be delivered from China and can’t be returned. Lin said he was nervous for months about the business opening.
Then on the shop’s grand opening on New Year’s Day, his nerves were settled as customers started lining up outside in the cold at 5 a.m.
The shop didn’t open for another six hours.
Lin said he went out to buy hot chocolate for those waiting outside.
Then after opening Lin said he had to limit how many people were allowed inside. Every day since that there’s been a line outside, he said.
The parking lot at Diffley Marketplace has been full for days with the claw arcade attracting the most customers.
Lucy Thao went to Duck on opening day for a date. She described claw machines as an obsession for her and her friends.
“For me, playing claw machines is like a drug,” Thao said. “I just love the thrill of the game, knowing when to drop the claw and how to grab the toy. You don’t have to spend a lot to get a plushie if you know how to play it but getting the toy is like a drug. It beats buying a toy because you know you earned the cute plushie.”
According to her, the most popular item at the shop when she went was Labubu, a small monster with high, pointed ears and serrated teeth that’s become a collectible.
Thao said certain characters at the gashapon and claw machines were so popular there were lines to play on the day she visited.
Lin said he expected some lines and hoped for a packed shop but the first few days have been overwhelming in a positive way for his staff.
“I didn’t expect people to be here at 11 a.m. on a weekday with no holiday,” he said.
Two days after he opened he had more than 50 people come in within the first 30 minutes of being open. Some of those customers said they heard about the shop via Instagram and TikTok and made the drive to Eagan.
Lin said he was able to connect with local content creators who helped spread the word of his business with videos that have drawn more than 200,000 views.
Samantha Marshall, who found the shop on Instagram, ended up needing some help while at the shop. She and her two friends were off work on January 3 and decided to stop by after an early-morning workout.
Marshall had been playing on the claw machines for five minutes and couldn’t win a prize until a staff member asked if she needed him to move the plushie to an easier position.
After applying a two-press system, Marshall finally got her first prize.
“It was so great,” Marshall said after winning the plushie. “Best moment of my life!”
About 30 minutes later the three girls celebrated their final victory after watching a gray cat plushie fall through the hole.
