I have decided Christmas does some crazy things to people. I am certainly not excluded from this grouping either. Do you remember when the Wii and the Xbox360 hit the shelves and no one could get their hands on one. The things were popping up on eBay and selling like hot cakes for way more than product was worth. This years version of the madness is the Zhu Zhu pet which retails at $8. When I started writing this article you could pick up a Zhu Zhu pet on Amazon for just under $34. That is around a 425% mark up for a furry fake hamster. This has me wondering what exactly a Zhu Zhu pet is. According to Toys R Us
Each Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster has its own unique personality and whimsical sounds! Loving mode: Pet them, love them, hear them squeak and chatter. Explore mode: Let them scoot, scamper, bump and boogie across the floor or through their Hamster Habitat. Collect the whole Hamster-riffic gang and all the Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster accessories to make a Humongous Hamster city!
Sounds like a decent toy for $8, but at $34 you are getting ripped off. I had a real hamster once and it was a rip off too. Like I said in the intro to this post I am just as guilty as everyone else.
Last year for Christmas we wanted to get our son a train set, not like an electric train but one of those wooden jobs you sometimes see in bookstores. We had the one picked out and we decided to wait a little bit to buy it. Well the next time we went to the store they didn’t have any in stock. We checked both stores in our area, plus Atlanta. No dice they were completely sold out. In addition they were sold out online so we couldn’t even go that route. As a last ditch effort we contacted my wifes mother in California who was able to locate the set at a store near her. We agreed to have her purchase the train set and we would pay the cost to ship it out. The train set was around $120, shipping was $150. Go figure we paid twice the price so he would have it on Christmas morning.
This brings us back to the question, How much are you willing to pay to see your child’s face light up on Christmas morning? Apparently I am willing to pay quite a bit but what about you? Are you footing the bill to get a Zhu Zhu pet this year or are you going to wait until the hype dies down?
Photo: (annia16)
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Nice post. I think we are all guilty of this. You just must know where to draw the line.
Negative. I think if we give into the hype, we are just teaching our kids that we will get them whatever they want, no matter the cost. (Then again, we are just starting to have kids so I might change my mind).
It's a tough one, because I hear what you're saying–you really want the joy of seeing your kid's face light up with that one toy every other little guy on the block is going to get.
But I think there has to be a limit, and we'd love to teach our kids that Christmas is all about family and giving, and not so much about who gets the latest toys.
That's my two cents, anyway.
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