The Christmas 2016 Shortages

It’s like the Frozen Christmas of 2016 all over again!

Parents who have children asking Santa repeatedly for a Hatchimal for Christmas this year, I hate to break it to you, but if you haven’t snagged one by now, you are most likely shit out of luck.

The Furby-like creatures that hatch from an egg and become more interactive and loveable, the more you play with them have been the surprise hit of the festive season, with retailers around the country fielding calls every day from parents hoping more stock will arrive before Christmas.

A storm broke out on the Sunshine Coast last week after a mother posted on social media that a Caloundra Kmart had eight of the coveted critters on their shelves and the onslaught that followed was akin to something you would see in a Hollywood Christmas movie.

Savvy sellers are capitalising on this lust-have toy, listing Hatchimals on ebay and other online outlets for as much as five times the $99 recommended retail price.

A spokeswoman for Target said told news.com.au that their entire stock of a Nintendo Retro Console that only went online last Monday was snapped up in a few hours.

The retailer is also running low on the Lego Amusement Park Rollercoaster, but has more of the popular toy coming every day.

Beloved Paw Patrol products are also “selling as soon as they hit the shelves”, so beware of leaving shopping for kids until the very last minute.

In the realm of food, we might be in for a potato-geddon with record rainfalls in NSW impacting on the yields and quality while Bundaberg, the country’s major sweet potato provider, experienced a cooler growing period, also reducing the supply.

The real Christmas tragedy is that cherry lovers might be forking out an extra $5 per kilogram for cherries, after wet weather caused crops to swell and split and reduce crops by as much as 60%.

Woolworths is currently selling the symbolic stone fruit for almost $20 a kilo and charging $7 for punnets.

Chucking a prawn on the barbie might also be a little harder to do this Christmas, with an outbreak of white spot disease affecting Queensland’s Logan River and three of the eight land-based prawn farms in the region.

Perhaps it might be an idea to stock up now and chuck some in the freezer to avoid missing out!

Source: news.com.au