ZHU ZHU Pets

So, I read about Zhu Zhu Pets on Monday this week on Yahoo News as one of the "HOT" toys for this coming Christmas season. If you read up on them on their website they sound and look really cute. I thought, man that would be perfect for Violet and Daphne. They both love animals, they love stuff that makes noises and moves, and so this sounded to me like the perfect gift for Christmas. Thinking like this, I assumed if I just dropped over to Toys R Us on my lunch break, I would find one for each of the girls. How naïve I was just a couple days ago. I show up and find the section where they should be and lo and behold, it is EMPTY with a sign saying that customers will be limited to “one Zhu Zhu pet, per customer, per day”, I couldn’t believe it! I talk to one of the employees and he tells me those things are impossible to find. Anytime they come in they disappear in an instant. Hearing this, I decided to see if it was the same at Target. I stop by and find the section they should be in and again, EMPTY. I talk to another employee and he says the same thing the Toys R Us guys says. He even says that he has never seen one, but gets asked about them all the time. He told me if I ever find one to come and show him so he can finally see one. I go home that night and look them up online and the only place you can find them is on EBAY or AMAZON for like $20-30 a pop. If you can find them, they range in price from $8-$10. All the stores that sell them are out of stock online. After hearing and seeing all of this, I become determined to find my girls some ZHU ZHU Pets! I take it on as a personal challenge to do this. Plus its kind of fun feeling like I am ahead of the trend since so many people haven’t heard of them and I love treasure hunting, and that is what this is becoming.

Next day, I have to run to some stores for a pricing project on some products in the Super Target Bakery, so I take this chance to see if any other stores have them. No luck at any of the Targets. I stop by Toys R Us again and a guy there says that they get a truck in on Thursday so check back. I call yesterday, and the lady says they don’t unload stock until Thursday night and they wont know if they have any until Friday morning. I am now thinking that this could get ugly over the next few months and if I don’t do this now, it will only get harder to find them as word spreads and Christmas gets closer.

So today, I decided to try one more time, maybe luck out and at least get one from Toys R Us. I take a quick half hour break from work and run over to the store. It is 5 minutes to 10am and there are already 5 other moms standing outside waiting for them to open so they can get ZHU ZHU Pets too. This just confirms to me the craze. An old guy shows up and I ask him what he is here for. It turns out he is a Hot Wheels collector and is there to check out the cars. We talk a bit and I finally tell him what I am there for and ask him the favor that if they have them, if I could give him some money and he could buy me another one, since they have the one per person per day limit. He agrees and I tell him I will find him in the car aisle if I need him. They open the doors, we walk inside in as civilized a fashion as possible, knowing inside that I would love to just push all these people aside and run back to the aisle to see if they have them. There are like 10 store employees standing there to greet us and I ask them if they have any. They say no, but maybe next Friday. I still go back to look and all they have is some of the accessories that you can buy to go with the toy. By the way, the accessories are where they get you. They look cute, but they are definitely more expensive than the actual toys. The other day I bought a hamster ball at Target in hopes that I would find a ZHU ZHU Pet to put in it. (Isn’t that crazy!!)

So, unfortunately no luck at Toys R Us. There is a Target right by there and so I stop in just to know I tried. I go back to the toy aisle where they should be and LO AND BEHOLD, a fully stocked shelf!!!! And Target doesn’t have a limit on how many you can buy!!! I cant contain my excitement. There is a lady in the aisle with her little daughter and I ask her if she has heard of these. Of course she hasn’t, so I explain what the phenomenon is. She seems skeptical, so I’m like whatever, I am stocking up! I start pulling them off the shelf but then realize that I don’t have a cart. I go look for one, find a hand basket and come back to find them all still there. I grab two of every color they have and then get a few more for good measure. I won’t tell you my total since I am not sure if we are gifting some or maybe we will sell some down the road. Either way, I can’t believe my luck and that I have already accomplished the mission I set out on just a few days ago. I decide I should leave some for some other parent who is looking for them, so I don’t take them all, even though I was tempted. I step away to call Linz and let her know that I found some, since she is highly involved with my quest. (I think she even asked her Mom to start looking for them. My Mom is going to look for them too.) I don’t reach her, and so I walk back to the aisle to make sure I didn’t miss anything else, and the ones I left are gone and that Mom who seemed so skeptical before has them in her cart! Now that cracked me up.

Anyways, I am relieved to find them now and also glad I don’t have to go out on all my lunch breaks in the next few months to try and find them.

This experience has reminded me of how before I had kids I used to think that parents were crazy going to no end to get there kids the “HOT” toy. But now that I have these cuties running around our house, there is not a thing I wouldn’t do for them if I think it will make them happy. The funny thing is, Violet and Daphne could care less about these toys, but to me, I think they will love them, so that is my motivation.

If you so choose to take on the quest of finding ZHU ZHU Pets, I wish you all the best. Be prepared for the challenges that lie ahead from one who knows. 
Peace!!!