Jabuka Brings Fun and Games to Grocery Store

The new “essentials” in the grocery stores are more than fresh meats, dairy and produce. As grocery stores have added a more diverse selection of household and frequent purchase personal items, a curious crossover of “food-related” products is finding shelf space too.

Toys and games with food themes, as well as licensed food brands, such as popular candy and cereals, are seeing a larger presence in the grocery store aisles. Home entertainment items are being sold alongside related edibles.

Jabuka Games, Inc. is a prime example of the retail trend. The small game company markets Jabuka, a word game with a coffee theme. Where the most fervent word gamers gravitated to the award-winner game sold at specialty toy stores, the coffee theme is gulping up a new sales audience.

Recently, Jabuka Games received an order from grocery giant, H-E-B, a supermarket chain with more than 340 stores throughout the U.S.

Martin Russocki, inventor of JABUKA, said, “We’re thrilled to have our game available at H-E-B. It’s a perfect channel for the coffee theme of our game. Our small environmentally-friendly packaging also fits well with the supermarket’s philosophy.”

Sales forecast for the game is greatly increased with the new retail presence. “It makes a lot of sense and I think it’s likely that Jabuka’s success will see other food-themed toys and more food brand licensing in this channel,” Russocki added.

Jabuka ($19.95 for 2-4 players ages 8+) is the multi award-winning rotating letter word game that brews up a lot of fun. Its small, portable, quick and easy game play offers affordable, multi-age entertainment through a cool, coffee theme that you can play just about anywhere. As an easy to learn and play word game, Jabuka has also been adopted as a fun educational item for hybrid and remote learning too.

How to Play: Players spill the coffee bean-shaped tiles and start a battle of words (official rules at www.jabukagames.com). No turn taking. Just grab the letters and make words. Then, maybe you can steal words from other players with clever word scrambles and adding letters. Notice the yellow letters that can be twisted, such as:

• “E” is “m” or “w”
• “c” is “u” or “n”
• “r” can be “j”;
• “t” is also “x”;
• and more

When you first spill the beans, some land face down, leave those face down until everyone agrees to flip and turn over 2 beans at a time to reveal new letters. Play. Repeat. Count beans when the last 2 are filled. The player with the most beans that make words wins! Game on.