- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Surprising Options Trades in TiVo Shares
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales Through Pop-Up Locations
- 8 Retailers that Gain During the Holidays
- Farrell: What's Different On This Black Friday
- 10 Dividend Picks For Your Portfolio: Chief Investors
- Dubai Stock Selloff May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Dubai Fallout Is a Correction, Not Another Crisis: El-Erian
- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
- Five Tips for Buying a Foreclosed Home
- Shoppers Hit Black Friday Sales; Budgets Pared
- Slideshow: Fantasy Christmas Gifts 2009
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales With Pop-Ups
MOST SHARED
- 8 Retailers that Gain During the Holidays
- Dubai Fallout Is a Correction, Not Another Crisis: El-Erian
- Get Paid Six Figures to Wear a T-Shirt?
- Finding the Holiday's Best Buys
- Dubai Spooks Investors But May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Banks Play Down Dubai Exposure, Investors Still Wary
- Some of Dubai World's Major Holdings Around Globe
- Banks With The Biggest Exposure to The UAE
- San Miguel Sells $1.36 Billion Stake to Ally
ABOUT THIS BLOG
|
This blog will look at the winners and losers in the retail space. Who has the right strategy to capture consumer dollars? It also will look for trends in consumer spending and how that will impact the economy.
Text Size 
With a dearth of dazzle in the holiday toy lineup this year, it looks like Elmo may just groove his way to the top again this year.
 |
Elmo Live He sings. He tells jokes. And he just may giggle his way to the top of the toy list this holiday season. |
Fisher-Price’s new Elmo Live, which sings, tells jokes and plays games, is expected to be one of the season’s hottest selling items. The giggly little dude hit store shelves last month and retails for about $60.
And he's not the only animated buddy vying for a spot under the tree this year.
Thinkway Toys’ Ultimate Wall-E robot, which brings the Disney-Pixar [DIS
Loading...
()
] movie character to life, is also expected to be a big seller, according to trade magazine Toy Wishes Magazine's "Hot Dozen" toy list — though the $249 price tag might deter some penny-pinching shoppers.
Also on the dazzle-them-with-technology list is Playskool’s Kota My Triceratops Dinosaur, a life-like baby dinosaur that stands over three feet tall, which kids can roar with, sit on and feed leafy snacks. He retails for about $240 and also stomped his way onto the Toy Wishes top-12 list.
To entice online shoppers to buy toys this holiday season, Wal-Mart [WMT
Loading...
()
] is offering 97-cent shipping on a slew of toys; Toys 'R' Us is offering free shipping on toy orders of $49 or more.
Toys that let kids ham it up are also expected to be big sellers.
Hasbro’s U-Dance ($75) is expected to do well, riding on the sequined coattails of shows like “Dancing With the Stars,” as is Disney’s Hannah Montana Acoustic Guitar ($80). For the budding superhero, Rand offers a Batman Dark Knight 16-inch kids’ bike ($65).
And, to capture it all on film, Amazon [AMZN
Loading...
()
] has the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder ($116), touted as “easy as making PBJ” (seriously, watch the Amazon video!) on its hot list. It’s listed in the ages 8-11 category, which means its perfect for that technology-challenged mom or dad in the family!
In the $20-and-under category, Amazon expects the Spalding Rookie Gear ($20), a kid-sized basketball, to sell well; and for the little ones, move over Baby Einstein, it’s the Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube ($20)! This soft-cornered cube teaches budding composers how to create create eight Mozart masterpieces with a variety of instrument sounds, including French horn, piano, flute and violin.
Jim Silver and Christopher Byrne, who now run their hot toy list on www.timetoplaymag.com, think Spin Master’s transformer-like Bakugan action figures and playing cards will be popular this holiday season — especially for economically-challenged families, as some of the toys and cards cost under $10.
Given the state of the economy this season, I think we could all use a laugh, groovy move or tot concierto to lighten the holiday mood!
Recent Holiday Central Posts:
- Holiday Trimming: Retail Sales Estimates Come Down
- Online Retailers May Have a Jollier Holiday
- OMG! Xmas Sales Are Starting Already
- Retailers Offer All the Frills, at Half the Price
- Holiday Office Parties Expected to Be Lamer Than Usual
- Value, It's a Good Thing
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- Zhu Zhu Pets are this year's must-have toy, fetching $40 or more on eBay.
- From the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that file, we present Jason Sadler, a man whose job is wearing T-shirts.
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- "The Who" will be the halftime act for Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami. Is the NFL behind the times?
- Some of the nation's top bartenders offer suggestions on what to serve at holiday celebrations this year.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes