NEW IPOD'S JUICY DEBUT CONSUMERS ON STAMPEDE TO GET HANDS ON THE SHUFFLE.

Byline: Candice Choi Staff Writer

The first crop of Apple's elusive iPod Shuffle is being plucked off shelves as quickly as they appear in stores across the Valley this week.

The first 100 Shuffles that arrived at the Apple Store in the Glendale Galleria on Monday sold out within an hour and the Northridge store was wiped out in three hours, said employee Rob Lamog.

``We've been open a half hour and we've already gotten 15 calls about it,'' an employee at the Glendale store said Tuesday.

The Glendale store expects its next shipment today; both the Glendale and Northridge stores will be replenished with another cache of Shuffles Saturday.

It'll be first come, first serve, Apple employees say.

The iPod Shuffle is a cheaper version of the wildly popular iPod and iPod mini. One model of the Shuffle costs $99 and holds 120 songs; another costs $149 and holds 240 songs.

Once word spreads that the Shuffle is in stock, Best Buy manager Michael Kugel expects long lines of anxious buyers to materialize in the early hours before the store's opening. That's what usually happens whenever a hot product hits the shelves, he said.

Grown men and children were slugging it out over the new PlayStation when it was released this fall, Kugel said.

``One guy took the PlayStation out of a kid's hands. We had to take it back (for the kid),'' Kugel aid.

The iPod minis also sold out in a heartbeat when they were first introduced. ``The Shuffle's going to go pretty fast too,'' he said.

Kugel expects the Shuffle to arrive ``any day now,'' but said he could not give a definite date of arrival.

The Shuffle started shipping out last week, but Apple spokeswoman Natalie Keriss said there's no way to track when they'll arrive in particular stores. The Apple Web site estimates up to a four-week wait for orders.

``They're making their way through the pipeline right now, but I can't say when they'll arrive at certain locations,'' Keriss said.

The Apple store at the Glendale Galleria was getting swamped with a ``ton of calls'' about the Shuffle immediately after Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the new product at a MacWorld speech in San Francisco last week.

When Jobs mentioned at the end of his speech that the Shuffle might be available at the flagship Apple store in downtown San Francisco a few blocks away, a stampede of customers immediately flocked to the store, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Steve Mullen, spokesman for Circuit City, said he doesn't know when the Shuffle will begin arriving at the chain's locations. He put a call in to the merchandising department, but he hasn't gotten any response on when stores will have them yet.

Customers can check on Circuit City's Web site to see if there are any in stock at particular locations, Mullen said. If so, customers can ensure they'll get one by purchasing it online then picking it up in the store.

``It's going to be hot, and we're definitely stocking up on it,'' Mullen said. ``We're expecting a stampede of people.''

The iPod and iPod mini are already ``hot items in a hot category,'' Mullen said. Even though there are MP3 players with similar capabilities in the same price bracket, Mullen said the iPod's easy-to-use design and creative marketing have made it popular.

Candice Choi, [phone]

candice.choi(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) People attending the MacWorld conference in San Francisco last week examine the new iPod Shuffle.

Ben Margot/Associated Press