Scarce objects attract people (scarcity effect). A previous study reported that scarcity given by the decrease of objects predominantly elicited the effect. In Experiment 1, we increased the number of a certain object and gave relative scarcity to another object. The results showed no scarcity effect, demonstrating that scarcity given by decreasing the number of target objects is necessary for the effect to occur. However, in the presence of others, the scarcity effect was elicited even by the fewness of target objects (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, we eliminated target objects to examine whether the potentially enhanced attractiveness to those scarce (but unavailable) objects transfers to the other leftover objects; then, the attractiveness of the leftover objects was not enhanced. These results suggest that consumer preference depends inflexibly on the dynamic temporal context that has generated the scarcity and on the social context in which the current scarcity occurs.