Word: hamster
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...always figured that a rodent who drives his own car would be able to withstand the recession, right? As retailers ramp up for the all-important holiday shopping season, at least the toy stores know that they have a hit on their hands. Fuzzy, electronic toy hamsters called Zhu Zhu Pets are flying off the shelves at major outlets like Walmart and Toys "R" Us. Demand for the pets is so high that Zhu Zhus, which retail for $8 at Walmart, are going for $60 on secondary-market sites like Amazon.com and eBay.com. The hamsters, which have names like...
Russell Hornsby, the founder of Cepia and a former Mattel employee, had long wanted to create a robotic pet for children. During a brainstorming session in May 2008, Hornsby and his fellow Cepia execs narrowed the choices down to three: a dog, a fish and a hamster. "Out of these, [a live] hamster is the one parents least like getting," says Natalie Hornsby, the company's marketing director, and Russell Hornsby's daughter. "So we figured a toy substitute would have some value." (See TIME's holiday gift guide...
This spring, Toys "R" Us tested the Zhu Zhu Pets in the Phoenix area. "When the first numbers came in, we could hardly believe them," says Storch. "We fell in love immediately." So have consumers. Cepia also executed a clever marketing plan. During the summer, the company hosted hamster-demonstration events at Major League Baseball games, of all places. The Zhu Zhus attended ball games in Atlanta, Arizona, Philadelphia, Texas, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Cepia also actively courted the mommy bloggers, sponsoring some 250 "hamster parties" at the homes of bloggers across the country. Cepia shipped product to the moms...
...roommate once stuck one down my pants, and both I and the hamster squealed,” commented the other roommate...
...They’re] like YouTube videos. Are YouTube videos a distraction?” said the pet owner. “And having pets is therapeutic. If you have a rough day, you come back, you take the hamster out of the cage that is looking at you, and you pet it, and it’s fuzzy, it’s cute, and it overwhelms...