[SwordMonkey]

Some people on here seem to have it in their heads that if they can’t find something, it must mean the employees are stashing/hiding it for themselves. Does it happen, probably, but I think it’s a lot more uncommon than it’s made out to be.

This line is popular, they sell out almost as soon as they’re on the shelf. There are people waiting 8 hours in a store for it.

Just consider there are alternatives to employees just out there to screw you over. They get asked 50 times a day about these, and if they’re not eager to go search in the back again when they already did for another customer 30 minutes before you, I don’t blame them.

[Edhaskel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MGurlea

This comment illustrates one of the problems of this message board that I have even been PMed about. Most people on here can only read a few sentences or one short paragraph and any longer than that they can't handle it. The other collector sites I go to people have lengthy conversations for days about things. Not here though. You get sh_t for it.



Ya because everyone seems to have focused in on ONE thing in the story, that is almost an irrelevant detail to the story, and hopped on the self righteous and moral preening band wagon. What would everything think of this story if the guy had only been there 5 minutes and THE STORE manager was caught hiding these and then walking out with the entire case? Would that change the story for you? Because those are really the relevant details and point of the story. I watched the video twice and I am still not very clear on the details of the timeline. Was he there that long because an employee was looking for them the entire time and told him to wait? They said some kid did search the ENTIRE back of the store for these because they were showing a case in stock.

Yes, as I have already stated, 8 hours is literally crazy. I would not have done that. Upon self reflection though I am not sure how long I would wait if confronted with similar circumstances. I would be interested to find out from others here how long would you stay in a store waiting if confronted with similar circumstances: Confirmed case in stock and employee currently searching for them and he has to search the entire back of the store. Or confirmed case in stock and getting the run around from employees. What do you guys do? How long do you stay? I bet no one will be honest with their answers. I bet I wont get anyone to even read this far down.



No here's the thing, you need to look up theft statutes and follow the details of this story. This "lowly" Target employee that you seem to think is "soooo oppressed and a victim" and can "barely get by on what he is paid" in this story was THE STORE manager. THE BOSS of the entire store. Google how much a STORE manager makes. According to Indeed they make AN AVERAGE of $116,000. This guy was the opposite of what you say.

I would also argue that the details in this case the manager could be charged with theft. Theft is not only permanently taking something but also temporarily taking it too. His hiding the case while others are looking for it trying to make the sale is temporarily depriving the store of product and money. An employee apparently looked through the entire back of the store so they had to be somewhere where he wasn't allowed to look. I am just speculating but what happens if Target security would have joined in the hunt and found these say in the guy's office? It should not be acceptable anywhere for him to be able to say, well I was just setting these aside for myself and was going to pay for these later. Not when in certain states people get charged with shoplifting when they go to a store and eat something while walking around or place something in their pocket while walking around with plans of paying for it once they get to the checkout.

Even if no one wants to prosecute, it is still totally unethical, probably against policy (see below), and just plain f_cked up that this guy knew there was a customer there wanting just some of these, employees searching for them, he hides them so said employees currently searching can't find them, and tries to sneak away with the entire case. Then when caught tries to still work out some cash DEAL in the parking lot. I am betting he was going to ask more than retail for the figures too if given the chance.

In this story it is entirely this guy's fault. He probably makes more than $116K a year seeing that this supposedly happened on Long Island but the temptation of being able to flip these $120 items for $900 got the best of him. It is called greed.



Thank you for pointing this out. I hope others read your comment.

I posted a story a few pages back on this thread that several years ago a manager looking guy at a Target on his own went totally out of his way to track down a DVD for me. I did not ask him to do a thing really. I just told him what I was looking for after he approached me and asked. When he found it he told me that he was about a minute away from giving up his own search and ordering the entire store to go into the back and tear it apart. All for one DVD. I don't get why now we get turned away rudely when we simply ask about stuff? How are retail employees allowed to discourage and stop sales today? It makes no sense. I am also astounded by customers who have commented saying that they think it is not part of retail employees jobs to help customers. Yes it is. Thank you again for confirming this.



Exactly, this guy took the entire store's inventory of the item. He took the entire case.

I read in the regular news about the PS5 sales. It sounded like people were experiencing what collectors experience all the time.

This is totally hypothetical and did not happen with the guy but whose to say if someone is willing to do this with G.I. Joes that they would also do this with something more expensive like PS5s? How much were PS5s being scalped for on eBay? This is another reason why this should not get a pass.



Thank you for finding this out and posting what you learned. Since you seem like you know what you are doing and have some rapport developed, I would be interested if you spoke to them again and asked about this crap that I read online and now have seen once firsthand, this "collector rule." Is this a real policy or are employees just making this up to, as you say, stonewall or deflect us, to get around the real rules so they can buy the stuff for themselves?

I read about it in the comments section under a YouTube review of the Viper first. A few people reported being turned away by Target employees and they claimed there was a new policy where they are to no longer help any customer looking for "collectibles." Furthermore, I saw on Friday a customer looking for MOTU being turned away and he was told there was a "collector rule" and he had to come back at 10AM. But then the next employee didn't say anything about it.

It seems to me most of our experiences, with not only Target employees but other big box stores as well, make little to no sense. Most of what they tell us is nonsensical and ridiculous especially when considering the entire goal of the store is to sell things and make money. Most of what we are told does the exact opposite of that. What does make sense is we are being told this stuff for a variety of nefarious reasons. Their reasons start to make perfect sense when you start thinking about that's what might be really going on.

Yeah, not reading all that. Jesus....

[Yojoe77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edhaskel

Yeah, not reading all that. Jesus....

Same here

[wmichben]

Long story short, we need to hit up Target trucks *before* they get to the store. Ha.

[CG23]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmichben

Long story short, we need to hit up Target trucks *before* they get to the store. Ha.

I always joke about that when I see one driving lol

[captain mal]

Purchasing a case of Vipers is $120. Sell each for $130, and you gross $780. $780-$130 = $650 net. Then you still have time, expenses, shipping, and so on. Still not a bad chunk of change. I can totally understand why people would do it.

Unethical? Probably. Illegal? Maybe in some cases. We'd need some more details from how Target classifies things.

Still, if Hasbro simply produced enough to fill demand - they could be collecting the money instead of scalpers. It seems a no brainer. If collectors are willing to pay $130 for one Viper - they would certainly pay $120 for a whole case if they were available.

Say Hasbro produces these in 10,000 unit batches. 10,000 x $20 per figure is $200,000. If they could instead get six times that amount - $1.2 Million dollars... why not produce 60,000 figures? I'm sure there is research showing where the tipping point is... and I'm probably way over it - but I'm just thinking out loud here. Seems like they are leaving money on the table - and putting it right into scalpers pockets.