TICKLE ME ELMO HOT ITEM; DOLL CAN'T BE FOUND IN STORES

He's red. He's furry. He's hot and he's here. Well, he was.

With less than a week until Christmas, about 150 people were able to buy Christmas' hottest toy -- a Tickle Me Elmo -- at the Cape Girardeau Toys R Us store.

The shipment was enough to satisfy most raincheck requests, but there wasn't enough to go on the shelves.

The nationwide hysteria has prompted local stores to take precautions when Elmos arrive.

"We make phone calls to raincheck customers, not indicating what the item is," said Barry Finley, store director. "We don't want the wrong person to hear the message."

Basically, customers are given 48 hours to collect the coveted toy before moving to the next raincheck request.

The toys are distributed to raincheck customers very quietly and carefully.

"It's for the safety of our customers and our employees," he said. "We want to minimize the possibility of an in-store scrimmage of any sort or the issue of starting a riot. I've heard of those things happening elsewhere."

He likened it to the Power Ranger craze and the Cabbage Patch shortage.

Nintendo 64s are also in short supply, but Finley said the Nintendo shortage was no surprise because the company knew in advance it couldn't make enough orders to meet demand. The Tickle Me Elmo scarcity was unexpected. Shelves were filled with them just a few months ago.

Just what is it about Elmo that is so popular?

"I'd be a rich man down the road if I could figure that out," Finley said.

Toys R Us is still taking rainchecks, but Christmas delivery isn't guaranteed.

Other stores have experienced similar Elmo demands.

The day after Thanksgiving, the Cape Girardeau Target store had 78 Tickle Me Elmos waiting for shoppers. The doll was advertised in Target's national sale circular.

"We blew out in the first 20 minutes," said Mike McKinney, assistant store team leader. "Guests were fighting each other. From that day forward we haven't been able to get them."

After selling out, more than 100 rainchecks were issued at the store here.

About three weeks ago the store received a couple of cases and about a dozen rainchecks were filled.

Target called each person to tell them the doll was in. They had 24 hours to pick up Elmo. The Tickle Me Elmos were packaged in paper bags with the checkout numbers written on the bag.

"It was more for guest safety than anything else," McKinney said. "I don't think we would have had any problems, but we probably would have had a lot of questions -- people wanting to know why they couldn't buy one."

The remaining rainchecks have been sent back to customers with notification that they won't get the doll before Christmas and offering a discount on another toy. McKinney doesn't expect any more of Elmo before Christmas.

"This seems to happen every year with one or two toys; not always this bad, but people know what they want," McKinney said.

Jenny Berry of Kay Bee Toy and Hobby Shop at West Park Mall said they haven't seen Elmo since Thanksgiving but people call every day looking for him.

"People already really know the answer when they come in, but everyone has a story. Some toy store finds one in the back that they didn't know was there," she said. Customers have asked her to go back and doublecheck one more time.

Berry expects the little red monster to make a reappearance on store shelves after Christmas, but not before.

If parents really want to get their hands on the little red fellow, Tickle Me Elmos are for sale on the secondary market. The Southeast Missourian has published more than half a dozen ads offering Elmo for sale. Most are asking for the best offer, although one specified $100 as the minimum price.

The toys sells for about $30 at toy stores, but ads across the nation have been asking anywhere from $75 to $1,000.

Charryl Rudesill of Cape Girardeau is hoping to help her son and daughter-in-law sell a Tickle Me Elmo doll.

"Their child is only a year and a half old," Rudesill said. "He really doesn't know what Tickle Me Elmo is, and they thought there might be a 3- or 4-year old who really wants one."

The fact that they might make $70 or more is an added bonus, Rudesill said. "My daughter-in-law quit her job and is going to school, and they're a little low on funds."

She can't explain the red monster's appeal. "They're cute, but I don't know; it's just the strangest thing."

In Poplar Bluff, the Wal-Mart store auctioned off an Elmo over the weekend for $300. The proceeds went to a local charity.

A couple hundred people were in the store to witness the spectacle, but only about 50 or so actually bid on the toy. It was donated anonymously.