Infants, Zhu Zhu asset inflation, save Q4 retail and jobs numbers worldwide | Bloomberg | 15 Nov 2009
"This is a Christmas where a lot of people didn't want to take big risks," Hornsby, 56, founder and chief executive officer of closely held Cepia LLC, said in a telephone interview. "You're gambling because you're selling to kids. That's a pretty fickle group." The bet is paying off. U.S. and U.K. retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Toys "R" Us Inc. and Tesco Plc, can't keep them in stock. Target is limiting them to four per customer. Some parents are resorting to Amazon.com, where the critters sell for at least twice the $8-to-$10 price.... Cepia has 16 U.S. employees, most in its St. Louis office, and 30 in Guangdong province, China. It started with one Chinese factory that in August made 600,000 hamsters for U.S., U.K. and Australia markets, Hornsby said. Today, four factories churn out 220,000 a day, with plans to release about 50 new characters next year. For now, Mr. Squiggles, Patches, Chunk, Pipsqueak and Num Nums, plus a bevy of accessories, will generate $350 million to $400 million in a 12-month cycle, Hornsby said. The hamsters move around and respond to touch with various noises. Christy Sershon, a 39-year-old mother in Duluth, Minnesota, heard about them from her 3-year-old daughter, who asked for one after seeing it advertised on television. "Once the commercials started, all the little kids couldn't stop thinking about them," said Sershon, who also has 5-year-old and 8-month-old sons.
The bet is paying off. U.S. and U.K. retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Toys "R" Us Inc. and Tesco Plc, can't keep them in stock. Target is limiting them to four per customer. Some parents are resorting to Amazon.com, where the critters sell for at least twice the $8-to-$10 price....
Cepia has 16 U.S. employees, most in its St. Louis office, and 30 in Guangdong province, China. It started with one Chinese factory that in August made 600,000 hamsters for U.S., U.K. and Australia markets, Hornsby said. Today, four factories churn out 220,000 a day, with plans to release about 50 new characters next year.
For now, Mr. Squiggles, Patches, Chunk, Pipsqueak and Num Nums, plus a bevy of accessories, will generate $350 million to $400 million in a 12-month cycle, Hornsby said. The hamsters move around and respond to touch with various noises.
Christy Sershon, a 39-year-old mother in Duluth, Minnesota, heard about them from her 3-year-old daughter, who asked for one after seeing it advertised on television. "Once the commercials started, all the little kids couldn't stop thinking about them," said Sershon, who also has 5-year-old and 8-month-old sons.
srsly. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
::
I know a family, two adults and two children younger than twelve. About four years ago the parents purchased a male guinea pig, ostensibly for the benefits caring for it might imbue their eldest child, then aged eight years. I was astonished to learn that that pig was the first pet either parent had acquired at any point in their lives. No dog, cat, canary, guppy, turtle, ant colony: the family lavished affection on the pig. The pig became the guardian of the gate to their household. But he was not enough; a year later, the parents adopted a female companion for, ostensibly, the first pig.
That chapter ended sadly, with ventures in small animal veterinary experimental surgery. And as far as I know, the kibosh on substitutes and replacements.
Such is life. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
