I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Dec. 22, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
The "Tickle Me Elmo" craze that has swept the nation this Christmas season is coming to an end, but it is waning more out of a lack of supply than out of a lack of demand.
The Sesame Street-inspired, cuddly, bright-red doll that laughs when it is tickled has been scarce to extinct in stores this season, which has brought out more violence among adults vying for them than it has Christmas spirit.
However, store managers at Target, Kmart and Pamida in Bemidji reported that adults have remained just that -- adults. They said they never had enough dolls to fill the area's demand, but people have remained patient, courteous and have graciously accepted rainchecks.
Manager Lori Stay at Kmart, in the Paul Bunyan Mall, said they have sold 60 to 70 Elmo dolls this year, but has no exact figure on how many have sold since Thanksgiving. They have been filling rainchecks with any dolls they receive, but still have many rainchecks to fulfill.
"People have been real patient about it," she said.
At Target, Highway 2 West, manager Dianne Berger said their "Tickle Me Elmo" dolls were sold out two days after Thanksgiving, and they have received two more shipments since then that are also gone.
Both stores said they would "definitely" have more "Elmo" dolls sometime after the holiday season.
"Tickle Me Elmo," made by Mount Laurel, N.J.-based Tyco Preschool, was a surprise toy fad that caught its maker off guard. Tyco had only predicted to sell 400,000 of the doll this holiday season, but sales are closer to the 1 million mark. And even though more are being made, Tyco officials said, many people will still go home without them.
In other cities, the "Elmo" craze has driven people to violence in under-stocked stores. Two women were arrested in Chicago when a fight broke out over an "Elmo," and closer to home in Forest Lake, Minn., police were called to keep the peace among 50 shoppers who waited outside a Kmart who had only 15 of the dolls to sell. The police were needed for several hours.
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