Zhu Zhu Hamsters and why we suck

[Neecy]

It was a brilliant idea for a holiday season mired in recession: offer an inexpensive toy for under $10 that kids would actually want. Throw in the fact that it's American-made and not cheap Chinese crap (produced in St. Louis) and the Zhu Zhu Hamster was ideal for parents wanting to cut back on spending this year.

Except greed and speculation took over. This $8 toy was snapped up by resellers, creating massive shortages in the stores.

Amazon has sold out, but their third party resellers are offering the above $8 hamster for $65.97. Prices on eBay are comparable. Suddenly, this cheap toy that parents had assured kids Santa would have in his bag is going to cost some serious coin.

I don't have any skin in this game. I didn't have this on my list for anyone this year. But this could have been a great deal for cash-strapped parents this year, and greed has priced this toy out of sight for most people right now. It's not just Wall Street that acts like pigs. It's everywhere.

[secondwind]

1. ah, the smell of capitalism at Christmas-time! n/t

[Lorien]

2. Hopefully the St. Louis factory is running round the clock

there's a lot of people out there who wouldn't mind getting a job that starts at 1am, just as long as the pay is decent. Those resellers should be ashamed.

[malaise]

24. I tried to buy one for my grand niece

but we weren't getting up at those hours.

[endless october]

3. i was wondering...

since it's December 1st, why can't the company hire some more people (there are plenty of workers available) and make a bunch more of these toys?

it's obvious there's big demand. there's time to scale up.

so scale up. everybody wins.

[gmoney]

11. Attempting to solve this problem might actually sink the company.

Could be that while it's assembled in the US, some of the materials/parts may come from overseas, or at least from 3rd party suppliers who may not be able to turn out more parts fast enough. The production cycle plus time to get them through distribution might be 2 or 3 weeks, which is cutting it mighty close to Christmas. And if a million units arrive at retailers December 22, there's no guarantee they'll sell, and if not, chances are most people won't want them AFTER Christmas, so either retailers will be stuck, or the inventory will get returned to the manufacturer, who probably would have borrowed money to buy the materials and pay overtime and all that, and be stuck with a million hamsters and no market. They'd then have to shut down production, putting their original workers out of jobs as well, until the inventory is sold down, and by that time, the fad might be a distant memory.

This happened last year with the "Twilight" Calendar... they didn't print nearly enough for demand, so it was selling for crazy money on eBay as people tried to get it for gifts, etc. But if they'd put it back on the press, they would have sold some in stores at full price, but within a few days, it would be part of the massive mark-downs on calendars after Jan 1.


On edit: while I was writing this, someone posted that it's actually made in China and imported. The above sort of holds true for import purposes as well, except the company is dealing with the added delay of overseas shipping, although there may be ten million of these things sitting in a warehouse over there.

[endless october]

13. but hasn't this been a story for a couple weeks already?

i saw it being reported before Thanksgiving and maybe the week before that.

in fact, here's a story from November 10th :

http://www.thisisbrandx.com/2009/11/americas-next-toy-craze-the-zhu-zhu-pet.html

that was plenty of time to scale up.

[gmoney]

18. Possibly... the OP didn't mention that nugget.

not a story I've been tracking, oddly enough. ;)

Although, with a name like "Zhu Zhu" it sounded Chinese to me, but I didn't bother to dig a little deeper before responding.

We have a client who has a hot product they can't ship because of one part that's been delayed again and again from their supplier. They're totally hamstrung. Or maybe it's hamsterstrung...

[Buzz Clik]

4. The price of being a brainless sheep.

Buy something else.

[derby378]

6. I'm planning on buying this for my brother instead

He's a musician, so I know he'll get a kick out of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFaU6Euuytg

[TwilightGardener]

31. LOL--had to turn the sound down, my dog went nuts.

[alfredo]

42. I was morse intercept back in the late sixties. That sounded like teletype

to me. Especially around one minute into the video.

[cowcommander]

5. Stupid parents too

There are lots of other toys out there that they could get instead, but paying $60 for one of those is just retarded.

[democraticinsurgent]

10. i feel for parents on this one though

almost every year it seems there is a hot toy aimed at Santa Claus age children that becomes impossible to get.

if your kids still believe in Santa it can be agonizing for the parents when they can't get the thing that their kids really want. and the kids are too young to really understand.

believe me i've been there.

[Raschel]

34. I'll probably get flamed but our kids were let in on the fake santa secret.

They still did pictures with santa, and participated in the seasonal fun.

It was so much easier if money was tight or you couldn't get your hands on that one toy.

[KittyWampus]

37. I would think that could actually create a special bond between parents/kids-

letting kids in on the secret, keeping it with them, sharing in the fun watching others engaging in the role playing and fantasy.

[democraticinsurgent]

44. actually that is cool

did you do it when they were really little?

My kids were pretty amazed when they found out. My oldest said, "Wow, you did all that just for us?!?"

[Loge23]

7. It is Chinese crap.

The company that dreamed this up is American - based in St. Louis, Cepia. According to a report on CBS Nightly News two weeks ago, Cepia employs 14 people (USA!USA!). The rats, err hamsters, are made in China where they recently had to start up two more factories to deal with the demand.
http://www.sphere.com/2009/11/25/holiday-shoppers-go-cuckoo-for-zhu-zhus/

Soon, IMO, this will all come home to roost when the USA will find ourselves competing with third-world economies for manufacturing plants.
Just like the zhu-zhu in a wheel!

[Lorien]

8. Turns out that they are made in China, just imported by an American

company: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356404,00.asp

[Neecy]

9. Thanks for the correction

I had read that they were made in St. Louis, but I guess we don't actually make things anymore.

[WCGreen]

12. Fuzzy Toys Speculators....

[Neecy]

21. Yep.

This was an exchange that took place on the slickdeals.net forum today when an online retailer opened up the sale of these for about five minutes:

what is the going rate on ebay for this set? i want to know if it is worth my time. i bought 3 of the 3 packs and listed them on sunday hoping for phat profitz.

Someone answered him:

ah, the true spirit of Christmas. the parents of the kids that can't afford them on ebay should send you a Christmas card.

He replied:

i get your sarcasm, but dont hate the player, hate the game, its called capitalism chief.

This is the "capitalist":

[phasma ex machina]

29. This "player" may soon learn the lesson of how pride goeth before a fall. nt

[Neecy]

30. I have a holiday wish for Mr. Player

That he spends many hundreds of dollars hoarding these and finds that no one is willing to pay his outrageous prices. Then, after the first of the year when they're back at $8, this aspiring young capitalist loses his shirt.

[Blue_Tires]

38. i had a GF at the height of the beanie baby craze

and believe me, those things (especially the hard-to-find ones) were all she EVER wanted...

[hlthe2b]

14. Good heavens... Kids can accept the concept of a rain check....

Heck, I can't remember how many times, my own name got somehow accidentally left out of the extended family drawing for gifts and I went home from the big celebration with grandma and all the relatives, empty handed.... Shit happens... Kids can accept a it of NON-Instant gratification.

[kenny blankenship]

15. Lemmings.

Not hamster.

[gmoney]

20. Maybe a cheap Korean knock-off will hit the market...

In the race to the bottom, even China is now facing competition from the economic sub-basement.

[RebelOne]

16. It is the same case as with the Furbies a few years ago.

They originally sold for $39.95, but people on E-Bay were selling them for hundreds of dollars. I finally managed to score two of them at a local store for the original price.

[azmouse]

17. Anybody that pays $65 for that toy needs their head examined.

[pipi_k]

19. Not quite the same, but I remember the Cabbage Patch kids insanity

Mostly the women where I worked at the time...they were spending hours upon hours standing in lines, fighting other people for those stupid dolls for their kids who probably played with them for ten minutes, then threw them aside and whined that they had "nothing to play with".

Nothing like turning our kids into selfish little pigs.... :eyes:

[eShirl]

22. meh

cheaper to get a real hamster now

[phasma ex machina]

27. ROFL

:rofl:

[Echo In Light]

23. Never underestimate the power of denial

[phasma ex machina]

25. 'Tis the season of adults making a trophy out of a kid's toy. nt

[TwilightGardener]

26. Tickle Me Elmo, Furbies, Beanie Babies...

it'll all end up at the bottom of some kid's closet within weeks.

[dugaresa]

28. i bought my kid a sewing machine for this year

paid more than a zhu zhu pet but that is the main gift. i will also buy some scrap fabric and i plan to spend the holiday time off teaching her to use the machine. It is a well made machine and hopefully will last her into adulthood and if she likes sewing she may eventually replace it.

she wouldn't mind a zhu zhu pet and many of her friends are getting them but she has a ton of beanie babies and other nonsense that is now just decorating her room so why add more fuzzy clutter?

[pipi_k]

33. One of the more happy memories of Christmases past for me...

involves getting those little crafts kits each year.

Potholders, plastic headbands, etc. I learned how to knit when I was 10, and it's been a lifelong hobby for me.

We got books...I still love them.

Toys were so much less low-tech back then and it seemed like they held our interest much longer than toys of today. Well, most of them. Like that hamster.

OK...after about 20 minutes of it doing the same thing (whatever it does), the show is pretty much over. Crafts kept us busy for hours....

I say good for you for introducing your daughter to something that can be useful, fun, and maybe even profitable for her... :)

[LeftinOH]

32. Is there a highly collectible "white" Zhu Zhu hamster? ...sold in limited amounts

at selected locations? =That's a sarcastic and rhetorical question. The collectible-crap merchandising scam hasn't had any high-profile products since Beanie Babies.

[951-Riverside]

35. People camped out to buy Windows Vista, the PS3 and iphone...

During the peak of the recession I saw people lined up at my local AT&T store to buy a $299 iphone and this isnt exactly a rich area either. :wtf: ...screw em.

[FirstLight]

36. I made the mistake ONCE of buying the coveted item for my son

He was 6, and wanted the Big Hot Wheels Volcano thing that spit the cars across some gap and they would go on to spin around... looked like real fun on TV...

Ya, well the reason those commercials show the same car flying across the gap is because it is the ONE time that it actually worked. The reason they have the announcer and music on is because the SOUND from the battery operated volcano blower was horrendous

my kid hated the damn thing in minutes, too loud and the cars ended up flying across the room, never onto the other track.

i think it was a $50+ toy, and ended up being landfill fodder or donated to the goodwill within a couple months.

Never again.

I am with the person upthread who sadi they are buying a sewing machine... crafts and SKILLS will be the focus of THIS christmas. and games for Family Game Night. We need more time to be together and use our noggins...not more crap to fill the closet floor...

[SoCalDem]

39. Remember the Cabbage Patch Kids?

My poor neighbor drove into Kansas City in a snowstorm because Amy just HAD to have one.. she managed to find one for her, and by New year's Day, that precious dollie was in the toy chest with the other dollies..

Luckily my boys never got into really trendy stuff..

Our youngest is chomping at the bit to reclaim all his Masters of the Universe stuff we have been saving for him for about 18 years now..He has it all carefully stored in original boxes..

he and his wife move into their first house in a week or so, and he's got a place picked out for his "stuff" already :)

I wonder if castle Greyskull still "talks":rofl:

[HughBeaumont]

40. 21st Century Tulipmania!

I mean, speculation in FLOWERS??? REALLY? But hey, stranger things are happening . . . .

[AngryOldDem]

My cat had a toy that looked just like that.

Cost about .99 at the pet store, and it probably lasted longer than what this POS will.

[Lex]

41. Maybe a real hamster, a Habitrail setup, and a book about caring for them

would be cheaper?

[WinkyDink]

43. CVS this Sunday, 12/06. Grab'em at midnight!

This is the word on a few CVS sites. Why would I kid?!