Toy Retailers Gear Up for Post-Turkey Shopping Frenzy; Survey Predicts Scooters Will Fly Off Shelves
Monday November 20 12:51pm
Source: Dow Jones
Exclusive Retailer Poll Forecasts the Holiday's "Must Have" Toys &
PC/Video Games
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 2000--With less than a week to go before the traditional Thanksgiving start to the holiday season, the nation's top retailers of toys and games have made their list and checked it twice.
The result of their annual survey is a solid prediction that those trendy folding scooters will be the number-one toy for the holidays. The survey is conducted by PlayDate Inc. (www.playdate2000.com) to help parents get a head-start on the toys and games that will be in greatest demand by kids across the country.
The list of best selling toys is almost equally split between traditional 'imagination' toys, like Barbie dolls, finger bikes and Pokemon cards, and new-fangled electronic toys, including a number of robotic dogs, singing dolls and talking trucks.
According to the PlayDate survey, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 by Activision tops the list of anticipated best-selling video games, while the best-selling PC game is expected to be Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, from Interplay. The LeapPad, by toy company Leapfrog, is predicted to be the best-selling toy sold in specialty shops. And retailers predict that Sony's PlayStation 2 will be the hottest-selling video game hardware - despite concerns about availability.
"Scooters will be a sure-fire hit, but after that, no one toy or game is going to dominate holiday shopping the way Pokemon did last year," said veteran toy industry analyst Sean McGowan, co-founder of PlayDate Inc. "On one hand, you'll have familiar faces battling it out, like Elmo versus Clifford and Super Mario versus Lara Croft. But there are new names in the battle too, like Harry Potter versus Poo-Chi. It's anyone's game now."
The PlayDate Survey
To participate in the survey, which also predicts best selling video games, PC games, and toys sold on-line and in specialty stores, PlayDate invited Amazon.com, AreYouGame.com, Babbages, CompUSA, Electronics Boutique, eToys, FuncoLand, Imaginarium, KB, KBKids.com, Kmart, Noodle Kidoodle, Software Etc., Target, Toys 'R' Us, Walmart, and Zany Brainy.
To see the full results of the PlayDate 2000 survey, including a special "Hot 1's To Watch" list of sleeper hits, go to www.playdate2000.com.
About PlayDate (www.playdateinc.com)
PlayDate Inc. is a marketing services company that conducts a poll of retailers, gathering their predictions of top-selling toys and games for each year's holiday shopping season. PlayDate compiles these statistics and publishes the list of Best Sellers, providing an objective forecast unlike other lists or product promotions that are generated by manufacturers themselves.
Its principals, Sean McGowan and Jon Salisbury, have more than thirty years of combined experience in the U.S. and European toy industries. Mr. McGowan is a veteran research analyst having followed the toy and game software industries on Wall Street from 1986 to 2000. Mr. Salisbury has published news/trade journals on the U.K. toy industry since 1985, and has hosted numerous media events similar to PlayDate in the U.K. since 1997.
(PlayDate Inc. is not affiliated with Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., a brokerage firm of which Mr. McGowan is an employee.)
CONTACT: Golin/Harris International
Stacy Hope or Emily Killmer, 213/623-4200
toys@golinharris.com
15:47 EST NOVEMBER 20, 2000
AI
