(WXYZ) - The tough economy has prompted many shoppers to plan to spend less this holiday season. Because of that, many toy retailers are keeping their inventories thin. They don’t want to have too much on store shelves like they did in 2008.
Timetoplaymag.com analysts say they usually only see shortages with the top 15 hottest toys. But this year, they are predicting shortages with the top 100 toys by early December.
Move over Tickle-Me-Elmo! Make way for Zhu Zhu Pets. They are Hot, Hot, Hot!
The toy robotic hamsters have all kinds of accessories such as cars, slides, and even sleeping blankets.
When you press the hamster’s little pink nose, it makes cute noises.
Maddie and Bill Cox are looking for a Zhu Zhu Pet for their grandson. However, on a recent trip to Toys R Us, they found them temporarily sold out.
“My daughter-in-law said that she was having problems getting a couple of things, and she was buying early,” said Maddie Cox.
When they asked the store manager when more would be coming in, he had a prompt response.
“Check back with us after 7:00 p.m. We’ll pretty much know if they’ll be on the truck coming in,” said David Rock, the Toys R Us Store Manager in Novi.
He told Action News that people will be waiting at the door in the morning for the truck shipment. So the store counts how many Zhu Zhu Pets are on board and plans ahead.
“We hand out tickets at the front door so that the guests are well aware before they come in of how many we have and what we have so they can make those purchases,” explained Rock.
Plenty of people are calling to check, too.
“The phone lit up 4 or 5 lines at a time [this morning],” said Nikki Quenby at the Toys R Us Customer Service desk.
“Every one was asking for Zhu Zhu Pets.”
“I have been looking every where for one,” said shopper Kim Corey.
Tom Satawa started his search in August and only lacks one accessory – a slide. But he can’t find it any where. He found out that shopping for them on the internet would mean paying jacked-up prices.
“On-line, they are two and three-times what their price is in the store,” explained Satawa.
Another hard-to-find toy is the “Mindflex” game. It includes a headset with sensors which measure brainwaves and then moves a ball through a course (think Luke Skywalker’s light saber exercises with the floating sphere).
You usually can find it in the board game section of the store. But it was temporarily sold out when we looked.
The new Barbie Fashionistas are also expected to be popular. The dolls have joints and boast the ability to strike 100 poses.
The in-demand video game of the season is likely to be the newly released “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2” game.
It’s already shooting off store shelves.
The Nerf-N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 by Hasbro is already selling well. It is Nerf’s highest capacity blaster featuring a collapsible stock and slam firing system. There were only 5 left on the shelf when we checked at one store.
So, if your child has a favorite, you might not want to delay. Industry experts predict a shortage of dozens of top-selling toys by early December.
