Guess what I found at TRU today?
Wave 5!!!!!

It was there first restock of Joes since last October. I walked around rest of the store and I noticed something. There was little if any new stock. I'm just talking about the hot items the collectors/scalpers grab. Through out the entire store there noticeable gaps in the stock for all toys and product. It looked like Kmart with the expection that employees would face things and make it neat. I'd expect even unpopular toys to be in stock. I wonder if my TRU will be shutting down in a year. What is the condition of your local TRU?

they are doing the spring phase changes, where they do the new layouts.

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that might explain the drought in the TRU near Boston. almost nothing in Joe on the shelves.

...Plenty of BBI, Chap Mei, and Powerteam Elite, though...

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Man, I wish they'd provide some warning, or a map at least. They did that at my TRU a couple of weeks back (or started it then), took me a while to find everything with it all shifted around; Star Wars stuff was split between two places (clearance on one aisle and regular stuff on another). Took a bit of roaming but I did find everything.

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It's inventory time too. The Toys R Us in my area sucks cause they drag it out for far too long. It usually isn't until about now or the first of March that they start getting anything in stock. We did inventory last night at KB Toys and still got an almost 600 piece truck in during last week.

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My TRU hasn't had a steady flow of new product, since summer. July wave 1 25th singles hit and then no singles up until January. Holidays nothing except 5 packs. Star Wars, only the exclusives were new along with tons of Saga Legends, during the Holidays. Like I said with Joes, January saw singles trickling in and now with SW, but only wave 7 & 7.5.

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What he said. I dont' think I've bought a single 25A fig from TRU yet, simply because they don't have them to purchase, or have them months after I've already bought them elsewhere. If TRU does go out of business, they've got nobody but themselve to blame. Even with their increased prices, I'd support them if they'd let me.

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Even during the holiday season I noticed a good deal of empty area in the store. I think they like the location they are at, but the store is just a little bit too big for the shift they made in their inventory. Not a bad move though going with things that will sell rather than shelves full of stuff that has to be dusted off.

Ouch though the GI Joe inventory has been either none existant or stuff that was released forever and a day ago like the original 5 packs. You might find a Dragon Hawk, an Adventure Team Sigma Six hold out, or the Lady Jaye gas trooper comic book three pack, but forget about any new 25th stuff.

Sad really because I'd rather go there than deal with Wal-Mart but the shelves have been so empty of good figures that the only thing I've purhased at Toys-R-Us in months was the FOX Bot and I only found that there once football season was over.

My TRU had the newer comics sets when I was in there yesterday, but really, it's sort of "that time of year" where especially for a store specifically devoted to toys it's going to be a little on the dry side. Christmas is over, it's inventory time, and the new "year" of toys hasn't quite started yet.

one of the biggest reasons (and something I [LASER BLAST] about for years) that you don't see much new product is they don't break up the sku #'s by assortment.
So wave 1 has the same sku as wave 9 (for instance).
If wave 6 sucks ass and nobody wants it, it sits, and no sales recorded, and nothing reordered (TRU doesn't reorder at store level, it's all computerized, and computers don't know the difference).
Thus you get stuck with crap all year long.
There are ways around it for both an employee and the consumer, but it's a hassle.

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its usually dry in the months after christmas. Though I did just find the new comic packs there yesterday.

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TRU is like the pretty girl in high school that acted as if she wanted you around, but by your senior year you were just hoping she'd transfer because she was nothing but a big flirt...

About a month ago I was in a local TRU and almost hyperventilated when I spotted Flash, a CG, Firefly, Hooded CC, Snow Job and IG Destro. Up until that point it had been nothing but October Guard and Lady Jaye/Gasmask Trooper threepacks. Upon checkout, 4 of the 6 (can't remember which) were not able to be scanned, like they weren't even in the system yet. I thought that was EXTREMELY strange. I went back several times since then and have found absolutely ZERO 25th Aniv stuff.

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Lack of Joes is nothing new at my TRU but lack of all other toys is.