Where To Buy Zhu Zhu Pets In Canada

In my Where To Buy Zhu Zhu Pets Hamsters post, I mentioned that there were people coming to this site to try to find out where they could buy Zhu Zhu Pets in Canada. Since then, I've had a lot more people looking for information about buying them in Canada, so I thought I should look at this more closely.

The Official Word - Zhu Zhu Pets Are Available In Canada

Firstly, according to the official Zhu Zhu Pets website, Zhu Zhu Pets are available for purchase in Canada:

We are the manufacturer/ distributor of these frantically funny furry pet pals, and are most pleased to distribute the Zhu Zhu Pets™ Hamsters and Playsets throughout the US, Europe and Canada.

So we know that they are available in Canada. But where? The obvious places to start are the big stores such as Toys R Us and Walmart.

Zhu Zhu Pets At Toys R Us Canada?

I found a forum posting on SmartCanucks.ca where a poster says that Toys R Us is the only place in Canada carrying Zhu Zhu Pets. I can't find any further information to back this up, but it seems that Toys R Us is the best place to start.

However, further down the same page someone says that Toys R Us Canada can't keep up with the demand so they removed Zhu Zhu Pets from their website.

I ordered 2 Zhu Zhu pets in early October on the Toysrus.ca website. I preordered them to receive Nov30...since then they have taken them off the website completely. I called the customer service line and she said that I would still get mine if I had an order number but they couldn't keep up with the orders so they took the zhu zhu pets right off the website.

Sure enough, when I do a search for Zhu Zhu Pets on the Toys R Us website, I get a message (at least at the time of posting) which says:

We are having trouble locating a match for your search: zhu zhu pets

So strike Toys R Us from the list of possibilities! They are supposed to be carrying the Zhu Zhu Pets range, but they can't keep them in stock, same as the stores south of the border.

Zhu Zhu Pets At Walmart Canada?

Next I turned to Walmart, even though I've found no confirmation that they will sell Zhu Zhu Pets in Canada and the poster on the SmartCanucks forum says that Toys R Us are the only provider. It just seems inconceivable that Walmart won't sell Zhu Zhu Pets. I mean why wouldn't they? However a search of the Walmart Canada website gives me:

We found 0 result(s)  for "zhu zhu pets"

So whatever Walmart are doing in Canada, they're not selling Zhu Zhu Pets on their websites. I can only presume that if you're lucky you may be able to find them in a Walmart store, but that your chances are slim. I'd say it's pretty obvious that they are also having trouble keeping them in stock.

Where Can You Buy Zhu Zhu Pets In Canada?

So really, it seems Canada is no different from the US. Zhu Zhu Pets are available in Canada, but they are just so popular that they can't stay in the stores. Therefore, my answer to the question above is that same that I give to people in the US:

Your best option to buy a Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster before Christmas is to buy them online (but obviously not from Toys R Us or Walmart, who don't have any!). So what's the best option? I think it's Amazon:

There are Zhu Zhu Pets available right now on Amazon.

Yes, they do cost more than list price (and they seem to be going up as Christmas gets closer), but they are in stock and you can buy them right now and have them in a couple of days. That's got to be better than running around and wasting your time at shops that don't have any.

I think the reality is that if you do want to buy some Zhu Zhu Pets before Christmas, you'll have to pay over the odds. It's either that or forget Zhu Zhu Pets and find something else for your kids.

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.