What is the point of street dates for toys?

[TheSabOteuR]

Rumor from a friend who works at a toy dept say that the store purposely put the toys on the peg before the street date is to see how fast it will go as a part of study to see the supply and demand.

[mav55mdash]

Walmart personel does not read the cases of SW, on the case it states not to be put out or sold til July 26th. Which is the street date. I had brought a couple of them to the register and it rang up not to be sold, they are so stupid that they said "must be a recall". I just laughed at them.

[Ewokhunter92]

Remember, Lucas Licensing fines a store $50,000 for EACH item they sell before the street date, Also, that store gets a month punishment of NOT getting new items from that certain license the next time something comes out.

So that little sale above will cost that store $200,000. Don't believe me, look it up, email Lucas Licensing or even Hasbro.

Also, they can track the employee who sold it to you and they WILL be fired as they had to go around the block to sell it.

I had my own small toy store and know the deal. I was to get Episode 1 stuff in before the street date so I could have it in stock. My store was grouped in with other small business. Some jack ass decided to go ahead and begin selling HIS stock early.

I got a letter saying my shipment is upheld until AFTER the release as it was a punishment for others in my group breaking the date.

All I could do was go ahead with advertisements and presells.

he whole point of a street date is to keep it uniformed of something big, as in this case, they are holding a Midnight Madness and want all stores to have the stuff for this event.

I believe Games, movies and CDs street dates are due to being able to calculate sales by week. Theaters are the same way, each way they tabulate the totals to keep track.

So each time you beg, bitch and complain about a street dated toy and in the end get it, you have just cost someone a job and a store a chance of future product to which you may not get when it comes out thus causing you to come here and complain about not being able to find it.

[coreyrc]

^ All true, but you bet your ass I was still happy when I got GTA4 three days early at my local Wal-Mart!

[topnotch97]

Originally Posted by coreyrc

.... but you bet your ass I was still happy when I got GTA4 three days early at my local Wal-Mart!

i hate you. LOL!!!

[Barefoot Jedi]

Originally Posted by bram1216

I think he is saying the room has been made,pegs w/prices put up,but no figures on them.

Oh, no. There are plenty of the new action figures on the pegs, the new Evolutions sets, etc. When you scan them it says "see an associate." And when you see the associate, they go through a lot of rigamarole until one of them figures out, oh, these are street-dated, can't sell to you.

Even though they've already been put out on the pegs.

[Zefram]

[Barefoot Jedi]

Originally Posted by Ewokhunter92

Remember, Lucas Licensing fines a store $50,000 for EACH item they sell before the street date, Also, that store gets a month punishment of NOT getting new items from that certain license the next time something comes out.

So that little sale above will cost that store $200,000. Don't believe me, look it up, email Lucas Licensing or even Hasbro.

Also, they can track the employee who sold it to you and they WILL be fired as they had to go around the block to sell it.

I had my own small toy store and know the deal. I was to get Episode 1 stuff in before the street date so I could have it in stock. My store was grouped in with other small business. Some jack ass decided to go ahead and begin selling HIS stock early.

I got a letter saying my shipment is upheld until AFTER the release as it was a punishment for others in my group breaking the date.

All I could do was go ahead with advertisements and presells.

he whole point of a street date is to keep it uniformed of something big, as in this case, they are holding a Midnight Madness and want all stores to have the stuff for this event.

I believe Games, movies and CDs street dates are due to being able to calculate sales by week. Theaters are the same way, each way they tabulate the totals to keep track.

So each time you beg, bitch and complain about a street dated toy and in the end get it, you have just cost someone a job and a store a chance of future product to which you may not get when it comes out thus causing you to come here and complain about not being able to find it.

I could see LucasFilm bullying small businesses but THE EMPIRE OF WAL-MART!? It would seem like the Wallies would just tell King George to go to hell and stick his toys up his hairy hole if they tried to enforce that. How much would LucasFilm lose if Wal-Mart just refused to sell any Star Wars merchandise, period? I imagine Star Wars is just a drop in the bucket for the EMPIRE OF WAL-MART.

If what you said is true, then my friend out-of-town has cost Wal-Mart $1,350,000.00 and some poor chick's job. He will think that is the funniest thing in the world, and will probably set out to destroy Wal-Mart entirely before 7/26 and get as much as he can (he's rich) just to take it back later. His sense of humor works like that.

I haven't got any street date violated Clone Wars/Legacy stuff, but I think I did get some Episode II action figures before the date back in the day. That particular store never seemed to suffer for lack of product as I remember. It was actually my same friend when he lived here who did that. He manipulated one of the cashiers into selling them to him, getting her to scan a POTJ action figure as I recall. I don't like arguing and confrontation so I wouldn't do it, so he told me I was a pus...filled-blister and proceeded to work his dark magic. I just paid him for them afterwards.

But you know, I don't think I ever saw that cashier after that.

[Barefoot Jedi]

Originally Posted by RandallA

I love the idea of street dates for toys. That would make all of our lives so much easier.

When a dozen collectors and a dozen scalpers showed up at the same Wal-Mart to fight over the ONE CASE of new Joes they got?

[Ewokhunter92]

Originally Posted by Barefoot Jedi

I could see LucasFilm bullying small businesses but THE EMPIRE OF WAL-MART!? It would seem like the Wallies would just tell King George to go to hell and stick his toys up his hairy hole if they tried to enforce that. How much would LucasFilm lose if Wal-Mart just refused to sell any Star Wars merchandise, period? I imagine Star Wars is just a drop in the bucket for the EMPIRE OF WAL-MART.
that.

Did you ever read the news article 2 years ago when Walmart ordered 4 times the amount of the 4 hottest toys of the holiday season (One of the new Elmos, big Hot wheel playset, Vtech thingy and something else) Their orders were shipped along with all the other stores orders as they are bulked shipped via cargo freight.

Walmart THEN requested that 1/4th of their ordered be air freighted and they would pay extra for such service.

Once they received their stock, the called up the ship freight and had it stalled in the dock, as the majority of the freight was theirs, and told them to hold it as they didn't have the space for it yet.

This caused all the other stores to NOT get their stock in time for the holiday rush, or at least get much of it. Walmart then cut the prices and a HUGE loss (the hot wheel playset for a $49.99 one, they marked it at $19.99) Thus making people not go to Target, TRU, etc.

This pissed off Hasbro greatly as they had to deal with those stores buyers complaints and threats.

Hasbro, Mattel, and a few other toy manufacturers told Walmart they will now have to wait 6 months as well as get a fraction of their orders after the other stores get theirs.

they realized how much Walmart had a control over the shipping process.

Oh, this happened before with Best buy, Circuit city and walmart with big screen TVs. Circuit City almost went bankrupt due to it.