Hialeah has its own Monopoly game, and there’s only one place you can buy it

The City of Progress now has its own board game: “Hialeahopoly.”

There is only one place you can buy it: The Walmart located at 9300 NW 77th Ave. in Hialeah Gardens exclusively offers the famous board game, customized for Hialeah residents, for a price of $19.98.

The game features very local places like Santa’s Enchanted Forest and events like the José Martí Parade. It also includes Palm Avenue and the famous Opa-locka flea market, which is about to close its doors forever.

It exhibits some of the best known restaurants like La Carreta or El Palacio de los Jugos. La Fresa Francesa and El Rinconcito Peruano also made the board.

The local Monopoly also includes the city’s most iconic schools: Hialeah Senior High School, Hialeah Miami (Lakes) High School, and Westland Hialeah High School. And places like Amelia Earhart Park (although it belongs to Miami-Dade County, it is part of the city’s history), Hialeah Park Casino and Goodlet Park, the largest recreational park in Hialeah, are present in the game, too.

Sold out in just a few hours

Two weeks ago, “Hialeahopoly” arrived at Walmart for the first time and in less than 24 hours all 500 available games were sold.

Paula Hernández, who has lived in Hialeah for more than 40 years, bought the “Hialeahopoly” at the request of her daughter.

“She called me and asked me to go as fast as I could to Walmart to buy this game,” she said.

The information took over social networks thanks to a story published by digital chronicler Rick Pérez on his Instagram profile @HialeahLove1925. Citizens and politicians alike rushed to the Walmart store, which could not keep up with the users’ demand.

For this reason, Walmart had to request more units from the supplier Late for the Sky, which last Friday carried more than 2,600 new units as a second order to said store to replenish inventory.

The store’s official account announced the arrival of new copies and in less than five hours, half of them were already sold.

Monopoly game planning

Walmart manager Héctor Romero explained to el Nuevo Herald that he thought it would be a good idea to create a Monopoly game for the city when the supplier offered to do something specific for Hialeah.

Together with one of his employees named Rey, who lives in Hialeah, they decided what the city information would be, what places to mention, restaurants, streets, schools. It took about six months to define what the iconic game would be like.

Romero pointed out that when the game first arrived at the store, “more than 3,000 users on social networks asked us to bring more units because they had not been able to buy it.”

Late for the Sky associate Michael Schulte explained to el Nuevo Herald that they have currently designed some 1,200 custom board games for specific cities like Hialeah, responding to Walmart’s request.

Late for the Sky defines themselves as “America’s leading manufacturer of custom-opoly board games.”

Among the hundreds of city customizations are the “Miamiopoly” and the “Floridaopoly.”

“We’ll be offering Hialeahopoly as long as Walmart needs it,” Schulte said.

For the city’s digital chronicler, “Hialeah having its own monopoly game is quite surprising in many ways. Just like the game itself, Hialeah is an aspirational city,” he explained to el Nuevo Herald.

Pérez believes that the best thing is how popular the game has become among Hialeah’s residents.

“Selling out so quickly says a lot about how proud people are to be from Hialeah,” he said.

“It’s so nice to see that the city where I grew up and have so many great childhood memories has received a recognition from the Monopoly board game with the slogan ‘I love Hialeah.’ We take pride in our culture,” said social activist Eddie Santiesteban, who rushed to the store as soon as he heard it had replenished its game inventory.