Shopping spree

I’ve seen pictures of the ones at Pokémon championships there not as big as the ones in Japan when I went to Japan I went to quite of a few of the locations

Geez I've always wanted to go to a place like that. lucky!

Um did you watch Sun&Moon anime at all? Lillie had Snowy(Alolan Vulpix) from Episode 14 onward(cared for it while it was an egg and she still has Snowy when she returned in Journeys). Samson Oak has the Kanto variant too and I consider that "relevant". Admittedly… prior to Gen 7, you'd have to go all the way back to Gen 3 with May hatching a Vulpix(she didn't own it though… would have liked her more if she had). Obviously, there's Suzie's Vulpix that Brock took care of for awhile, and there's also Macy's Vulpix(Macy wanted to go on a date with Ash, in case you didn't know/remember who she was) back in Gen 2. So yeah… hits and misses and a long dry spell but its a popular Pokémon(especially it's Alolan variant). Whether its more popular than say Eevee, Pikachu or regional starters… eh that's a likely no.