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The scooter may be a hot item this Christmas.Toni-Ann Neita, Staff Reporter
For Jamaican retailers, this isn't going to be a one-hit season. There isn't one specific toy, like a Furby, that everyone has to have.
Last Christmas, Furbies were popular but the aluminium revamp of the push scooters of old were the 'must have' toys of the season. Almost every store was fully stocked with scooters in all shapes and forms because the storeowners knew they had a hit on their hands.
Now the scooters have been parked and are gathering dust in a corner somewhere and parents and storeowners alike are left scratching their heads trying to figure out what next. What will be the hot toy this Christmas?
When the question was posed to local retailers they admitted that this year they are somewhat at a loss as to what will be the hot toys. "I don't think there will be anything in particular that will fly off the shelves like in past years," said June Wong, a director of Liguanea Drug & Garden Centre. A trip to stores across the island will confirm this outlook because, unlike last year, no toy appears to be in particular abundance versus another.
Video game consoles are expected to 'fly off the shelves' overseas. The Play Station 2 still has momentum from last Christmas, but also on the scene will be Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Game Cube, both of which are being called "the next-generation game systems". Local retailers are aware of the potential of these high-tech products but are wary of stocking more than a few of these in their stores.
"Due to the high cost of these game systems most people will probably ask relatives to send them versus purchasing them locally where import duties and profit mark-ups will push the prices up even further," one storeowner commented.
For similar reasons, the Robotic toy dogs that are popular overseas are also not likely to be high sellers locally.
Thanks to the events of September 11, a group of toys from Fisher-Price called 'Rescue Heroes' will probably top the list of toy sales in the United States of America this season. But, unlike most American trends, this one is not expected to have much, if any, impact here in Jamaica.
The consensus among local retailers is that Harry Potter merchandise is probably the best bet for them this season, especially with the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone soon to be released here.
There are other movie-driven products that are expected to make good sales in Jamaica- those from the upcoming Monsters Inc. and from the recent summer hit, Shrek. Other than these, retailers and parents will be forced to "take a stab in the dark" and hope for the best.
