- Fingerlings are the hottest today for holiday 2017.
- Their sudden popularity has made them hard to find this holiday.
- It's driving both customers and
retail workers crazy.
Fingerlings are proving mischievously elusive.
Demand for the robotic monkey toy, which attaches to your finger and makes sounds when you interact with it, has outstripped all but a handful of rivals. The high demand seems to be at the same level as Hatchimals were last year, and it's being called the most popular toy of this year's holiday season.
Walmart described supplies for the toy made by WowWee as "tight" during a conference call with reporters earlier in November.
"Fingerlings have been hot and remain hot," Walmart US' merchandising head, Steve Bratspies, said.
In some stores, customers take the toy off the shelves as soon as they're put out, he said. Retailers only get a limited quantity of the toys at a time. A store manager at a Toys R Us in New Jersey told CNBC that the Fingerlings sell out within hours of being put out on the sales floor.
On Walmart.com, all four colors of the toy are usually out of first-party stock. Target's version comes with its own exclusive playset and is also usually out of stock online. Fingerlings are frequently out of stock on Amazon, where they are sold only by third parties at a 100% markup or more. Toys R Us, which sells an exclusive unicorn version, is also frequently out of stock.
Retailers will be getting stock of the toy throughout the season, but the demand has far outstripped supply. That's causing both frustrated would-be buyers as well as retail workers to vent online.
One retail worker tweeted: "FINGERLINGS ARE NOT WORTH IT!!!" They added that they even pulled the tag for the toy to prevent customers from asking.
Another tweeted a gif to express her exasperation at the flood of shoppers inquiring if the store had any Fingerlings.
Some customers are also tweeting about their quest to nab the toy for their children who put it on their Christmas lists.
"Fingerlings, stupid wee monkeys that happen to be sold out everywhere," one user tweeted. "The special princess would like one. Letting her down is not an option!"
Others are tweeting the desperate scenes in stores as Fingerlings get restocked in real time.
Some parents are turning to marketplaces like Ebay, where the toy sells for multiples higher than its $15 list price. Some of these resellers get their stock from "Grinch bots," computer programs that can buy the toys online faster than humans.
The short supply has made some so desperate as to risk getting scammed by fakes. WowWee has sued 165 manufactures of fake Fingerlings earlier this year to prevent the fake's proliferation.