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12-23-2012, 08:39 PM | #51 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Outworld
Posts: 1,652
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I think Wal Mart has it's flaws, just like most big businesses do. But the only thing I really can't stand about Wal Mart is the fact that they let the big toy companies like Hasbro or Mattel dictate case assortments. That's why Wal Mart has had the same 30 Avengers 6 inch Iron Man figures wasting space on pegs for the past 6 months, but there's not single Hulk or Hawkeye to be found. Same goes with the Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters Batman figures which have been on the toy aisle in droves for the past 5 months while Alfred or Gordon have never been seen.
Toy companies know that when they arrange each case to have shortpacked numbers of the most popular or sought after characters, that retailers will have to order more cases, thus making the the toy companies more money. Like the Avengers 6 inch figure cases back in May came with 2 Caps, 2 Iron Mans, and 1 Hulk 1 Hawkeye 1 Thor 1 Loki; If they had packed each case to have 2 Hulks and 2 Hawkeyes (or even 4 of each given the demand back then) Wal Mart would have only had to order half as many cases to meet demand, and would have therefore sold off all their Avengers 6 inch figures faster meaning each stores toy aisle would be clear of all these excess and surplus toys like the Avengers Iron Man 6 inch figures. There are too many toy companies doing this, that is manipulating case assortments of whatever toy line they can in order to encourage retailers to order more cases, which is holding up each Wal Mart location's individual toy budgets, and making each Wal Mart's toy aisle become perpetually cluttered with crap no one wants. So, no I don't think Wal Mart has totally given up, I believe they've become complacent when it comes to buying from toy companies by being forced to buy a bunch of crap that won't sell in order to get a handful of toys that will sell.
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12-23-2012, 08:56 PM | #52 |
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Quote:
I think Wal Mart has it's flaws, just like most big businesses do. But the only thing I really can't stand about Wal Mart is the fact that they let the big toy companies like Hasbro or Mattel dictate case assortments. That's why Wal Mart has had the same 30 Avengers 6 inch Iron Man figures wasting space on pegs for the past 6 months, but there's not single Hulk or Hawkeye to be found.
Toy companies know that when they arrange each case to have shortpacked numbers of the most popular or sought after characters, that retailers will have to order more cases, thus making the the toy companies more money. While they don't dictate specific cases assortments, they also will push the toy makers into packing certain characters or concepts more heavily. The view is that those 30 Iron Man figures will, eventually, sell because he is a popular character that casual buyers like Moms or grandparents will eventually buy out as gifts. 30 Loki figures...don't have that sort of appeal. (Also note that if you're in a market large enough to have THAT much of the 6" figures on pegs, it probably means you have a LOT of collectors in the area. If a collecting group perceives a figure as "shortpacked" or "rare", it shouldn't be uncommon to have people picking up multiples for trade fodder or sales, thus creating the very scarcity collectors bitch about. I can guarantee that if it was just kid/parent sales, you'd have a good number of Loki's sitting around)
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Originally Posted by TheRealDubya
Any sort of panic at this stage is just pure unsubstantiated reptile brain stem fear.
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Originally Posted by SmokePants
This is why companies are secretive -- because we all want the truth, but most of us cannot handle it.
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12-23-2012, 09:11 PM | #53 |
Crimson Guard
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Quote:
Actually, Walmart doesn't give a shit about "case assortments", and have actually been a major pusher for the idea of "core characters" (just about any exclusive they get will have a deemed "core character" in them). If Walmart sees there are 40 6" Avengers figures just sitting on shelves...they WON'T send more. And if the sit long enough, they will deem that assortment a "failure" and just not stock it anymore. (The toy companies make money on stores reordering product, it does them NO good to "kill" assortments will overpacking that doesn't sell)
While they don't dictate specific cases assortments, they also will push the toy makers into packing certain characters or concepts more heavily. The view is that those 30 Iron Man figures will, eventually, sell because he is a popular character that casual buyers like Moms or grandparents will eventually buy out as gifts. 30 Loki figures...don't have that sort of appeal. (Also note that if you're in a market large enough to have THAT much of the 6" figures on pegs, it probably means you have a LOT of collectors in the area. If a collecting group perceives a figure as "shortpacked" or "rare", it shouldn't be uncommon to have people picking up multiples for trade fodder or sales, thus creating the very scarcity collectors bitch about. I can guarantee that if it was just kid/parent sales, you'd have a good number of Loki's sitting around) Even recently, when calling multiple Wal Marts about Marvel LEgends Wave 3, it seems every Wal Mart said the same thing, that they were not being ordered due to their having an overtstock of ML Wave 1 and 2 figures remaining, even at clearanced out prices. So the toy companies case assortments and distribution tactics are holding up the Wal Mart toy plines, preventing them from keeping new and current stock in a lot of ways Even though Wal Mart is a big store, they still only have 1-2 aisles of action figures to offer, and I think they really want to make those aisles count considering how much money Wal Mart makes off of parents who take their kids shopping and buy them a toy for being good or just for the hell of it.
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FEEDBACK: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...ml#post3741414 Last edited by DarkParsifal; 12-23-2012 at 09:28 PM.. |
12-23-2012, 11:04 PM | #54 |
Iron Grenadier
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Tampa, Florida
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And that's why I only shop at Target. They still stock the new stuff. I rarely check out Walmart anymore.
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12-23-2012, 11:38 PM | #55 |
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Quote:
I see what you mean, but it doesn't do Wal Mart that much good to have too many of the same figures sitting around for too long. Back in 2008-2009 that's actually one major factor that ended up killing the Marvel Legends line. Too many retailers ended up with droves of the same figures sitting on valuable peg space for months and months, and those figures never got bought, retailers had to end up either returning them to Hasbro, or selling them off at a discount as diverted stock to closeout stores like TJ Maxx, Big Lots, Marshalls, Tuesday Morning, etc.
ToyBiz managed to sustain the line largely by NOT having a distribution system. They made each retailer responsible for getting product to shelves, and as a result, had often wacky distribution. Even the one time Toy Biz got everyone on the same page (the Galactus wave), you still had guys like Deathlock, Bullseye and Dr. Strange sitting for months, well into several subsequent waves. Quote:
Even recently, when calling multiple Wal Marts about Marvel LEgends Wave 3, it seems every Wal Mart said the same thing, that they were not being ordered due to their having an overtstock of ML Wave 1 and 2 figures remaining, even at clearanced out prices. So the toy companies case assortments and distribution tactics are holding up the Wal Mart toy plines, preventing them from keeping new and current stock in a lot of ways
Second, in some cases, a product just doesn't sell in some regions. Something about it just doesn't appeal to consumers. And in those cases, you just have to deal. While case assortments do contribute, they are NOT an exact science. I mean, who would have thought Arctic Destro (a figure shipped two per case because he was a big name, and had the same availability as Dusty) would bog down the retail of GI Joe so bad?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRealDubya
Any sort of panic at this stage is just pure unsubstantiated reptile brain stem fear.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SmokePants
This is why companies are secretive -- because we all want the truth, but most of us cannot handle it.
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12-24-2012, 10:41 AM | #56 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Outworld
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[QUOTE=Steevy Maximus;4099956]And much of that was a result of stores selling Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and similar "high profile" guys first, then leaving a bunch of Banshees, Emma Frosts, and Hercules figures rotting on pegs. That's basically the reason Hasbro continues to heavy pack those "big names" (even including them in newer waves without a BAF component).
ToyBiz managed to sustain the line largely by NOT having a distribution system. They made each retailer responsible for getting product to shelves, and as a result, had often wacky distribution. Even the one time Toy Biz got everyone on the same page (the Galactus wave), you still had guys like Deathlock, Bullseye and Dr. Strange sitting for months, well into several subsequent waves. First, calling an actual store for such product information is POINTLESS. Most employees have no clue what toys they are selling, much less individual wave breakdowns. [QUOTE] Actually with the return of Marvel Legends Hasbro has not been packing the heavy name characters that well at all. That's why when Return of ML wave 1 and 2 came out, no one could find Masked Daken, or Big Time Spidey, or either of the Ghost Riders,etc. That's why were selling on ebay for $100 at the time the wave first released. With the Return of ML Hasbro is attempting a new approach, that is they only release a wave in relatively small nationwide increments. They do this because they know if they release a small supply given the large demand, retailers will sell all or most of the figures, thus avoiding retailers having to return or clearance the excess out, which then encourages retailers to order more cases. Then once the intial production and distribution cycles are completed, Hasbro analyzes various sources of sales data to find out which figures they need to make more of and which they don't. That's why Hasbro had so many different Return of ML case assortments after the waves initially released. That's why they had one case assortment with Ghost Rider, Steve Rogers, Hope Summers, The Wrecking Crew, Madame Hydra, Masked Daken and BT Spidey. Because those were the best sellers, the hardest to find figures from Wave 1 and 2. And as far as comparing Toy Biz distribution with Hasbro, I honestly can't see those two comparing fairly at all. Because back then it was a whole different ball game. Marvel Legends only costs about $10-$11 a pop, whereas now they range from $16-$20 at most retailers. The line was easier for Toy Biz because of the price per figure. At $10-$11 retailers could sell more figures or afford to not sell the figures because they were cheaper and the ones that didn't sell could be clearanced or diverted out for less. Even Hasbro used to charge $10-$11 per figure, and the retailers used to sell more, and return less when they cost that much as a result. Lastly, I agree about calling stores to track down toys. It is pointless. When I began working at Target a couple years back, the person that ran the toy aisles literally trained me to just tell everyone who called looking for something that we were out of stock. That's why now I don't call unless I have a DPC item number and am talking to a manager, because I have actually had a lot of luck in tracking figures down over the phone when I do that.
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12-24-2012, 12:16 PM | #57 |
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^ 100% true.
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HTS.com's epic failures survivor: - Slaughtergate 2010 - Zaranagate/StarStrikergate 2011 ROSS - GI Joe retailer of 2010/2011!!! **** - 4 stars!!! For sale: GI Joe Modern Era Dialtone (from JoeCon) MOSC - PM if you are interested. My Feedback Thread |
12-27-2012, 04:06 PM | #58 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Lowell, Ma
Posts: 76
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I have noticed that the WM's in my area are flooded with wrestling figures, and couple of Asian spinner toy lines or whatever those damn things are. There is a small area for Star Wars, Spiderman, and Transformers. For Christ's sake, they still have half an aisle of Toy Story 3 toys. What's it been...3 or 4 years now? I'd like to throat punch whoever orders the toys in my area.
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12-27-2012, 04:32 PM | #59 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Athens Al
Posts: 2,741
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Dudes, guys, gusys....
Wal mart Employees snake the stuff out teh back door and then teh stock system shows it as in hand DUH, thats exactly whats happened to teh toy market, us adult collectors have made it profitable for retail workers to work the system. I lay this at teh feet of speculators and spcialty shops but oh well whatever. But for real, theft, on a grand scale, just look at ebay by searching within a certain radious from your current addy, you will see tons of localish auctions for figure ( SW, Joes, MU, ect) that you have NEVER seen in person in a store, but boy howdy there will be no shortage of auctions for any given item in your area. Go on try it. Its theft, the employees take whole cases out of teh stock rooma and start ebay auctions for them, if they dont sell they will take em back in the stock room and then eventually stock them, hence why we see strange out of order cases of semi sought after stuff show up months later....the items didnt sell on ebay so teh employee sneaks em back. |
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