Zhu Zhu Pets Not Available In Walmart

I haven't seen much in the mainstream media about this, but I have seen this reported on Twitter, Yahoo Answers and on blogs: Apparently Walmart refused to sell Zhu Zhu Pets stock to customers and held them back for a sale on 11/8 - but then they had virtually none to sell for that sale!

It started when I noticed quite a few unhappy people on Twitter saying that they found Zhu Zhu Pets in Walmart, but were told they couldn't buy them when they got to the counter. They were told that the stock had to be held for a sale on 11/8.

Some argued and eventually got them to sell the stock, some got them to put the Zhu Zhu Pets aside for them to come and buy on 11/8 and some left the store empty handed and angry.

There is a story on DigTriad about people mistakenly thinking that Zhu Zhu Pets had been recalled, which goes on to confirm that stock had been held back from sale at Walmart. The story quotes Walmart as saying:

In a handful of stores, a few hamsters were placed on shelves too early, and therefore their sale was already blocked until this Sunday. Walmart apologizes for any inconvenience to customers, but says it is important to ensure when a product is advertised, it is indeed on the shelves. The product will be on store shelves Sunday, Nov. 8.

However, that's not the real story here - the real story is that come the sale on 11/8, there were still almost no stock in the Walmart stores. There are some scathing comments over on a post on Paula Neal Mooney's blog. Here's just a couple of quotes from the comments section:

Simnuts on November 7th, 2009

Went at 12:10 am on 11/08 and was told ’sorry all sold out already we had only 5 although our stock tickets say we have 16, but well we cant find them.”

Yes, that's sold out at 10 minutes after midnight. So much for a big sale! Personally, I'm wondering where the other 11 Zhu Zhu Pets Hamsters disappeared to! Simnuts goes on to say that another store in the area didn't get any stock for the 11/8 sale and that the sale was obviously a marketing ploy.

barbie on November 10th, 2009

Wal-mart scammed consumers once again, by providing a limited supply of Zhu zhu pets. I went to two wal-marts on 11/08 and expected to see at least a large empty display, but there was one small empty hanger that could have contained maybe 10 toys.

Barbie goes on to call it false advertising and claim that Walmart had only received 40 toys from the manufacturer that week.

Anyway, this has obviously left people even more frustrated in their search for Zhu Zhu Pets and not particularly happy with Walmart. However, for whatever reason, this hasn't been widely reported in the mainstream media.

Personally, I'd forget about trying to buy Zhu Zhu Pets at a local store as it's just too much hassle! I'd be willing to pay a little bit extra to buy them online from Amazon right now and not have to deal with all the troubles that people are encountering.