A Decline in Toy Sales?! Around Christmas time?!

According to MSNBC.com, even though factories have produced a life size pony, a laughing Elmo, and a digital camera for three year olds, it will not be enough to pull the industry out of a slump. This year, through October, the industry has been able to ring up $12.7 billion in sales there, but it is down by 2% from last year. That in return, puts November and December in the "hotseat" to pull in a whopping $9.1 billion in sales if the industry even atleast hopes to match last years $21.8 billion. This could be stretch considering those two months only generate 33-37% of total sales, not the 42% the industry needs. The reason the revenue is lower than past years it due in part to retailers such a Walmart and Target. Because they are able to sell the toys so much cheaper, it pushes more pressure on the toy companies to raise prices. Also, video games and systems were launches right before Thanksgiving which actually took money away from the more traditional toy stores. It seems that children are losing interest in the traditional toys and turning towards video games, dvds, IPods, websurfing, MySpace, and AOL as a way of entertainment. The traditional toy industry has been in a slump in 2002 and video games will be permanent competitive pressure.

So what do you think? Do you feel that the traditional toys should be made more electronical? Or maybe the electronic stores should buy out the traditional toy stores and monopolize? That sounds crazy enough, but it could happen at this rate.