CINCINNATI — How times change: during the past two holiday seasons, parents were scrambling to find hot holiday toys, gaming consoles, and bicycles for children.
Remember the "great bicycle shortage?" It is long over.
This year, things are looking up for last minute shoppers.
We found Kelly Rechts wrapping up her Christmas shopping at Walmart, surprised by how well stocked the shelves were.
"I feel like it is better this year," she said. "In years past it was hard coming out of COVID, there wasn't a lot of selection. But this year there is more selection and more variety."
Last December, you might recall, dozens of giant cargo ships were backed up in Los Angeles, creating shortages of scooters, electronic gadgets, and many of the hottest toys.
Those ships are all gone.
Walmart shelves back to pre-pandemic times
We visited a Walmart store, the Walmart Super Center in West Chester, Ohio, to see how supplies are holding up this late in the holiday shopping season.
Supervisor Randi Wood says supplies are excellent.
"We do have hoverboards available," she said. "And most of the top toys we have as well, like Cocomelon, Squishmallows, and Magic Mixies."
One aisle was lined with Barbie dolls, another with Lego sets.
Wood says you should even be able to find an Xbox Series S or Nintendo Switch in many of their stores --consoles that were so elusive two Christmases in a row.
"We've really worked hard with our team to make sure the Xboxes and Switch game consoles are in stock in stores and online," she said.
One item still hard to find
However, there is still one gaming console that remains hard to find: Sony's PlayStation5 , due to the ongoing computer chip shortage, which hit Sony harder than other companies
Many stores are out of PS5 consoles.
And if you order online, you may have to pay $600 or more from 3rd party sellers, well over retail.
You may want to consider a rain check for your loved one, explaining that you will buy one in the spring.
But otherwise, toy shoppers have the biggest selection in 3 or 4 years, good news to last minute shoppers.
The biggest issue facing last minute toy shoppers: Shipping times.
So your best bet may be shopping in stores to make sure you get it by Christmas, so you don't waste your money.
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