I found a ton of Indy stuff on the shelves today, but the basta'ds wouldn't sell 'em too me!

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If they're on the shelves why aren't they for sale? Wouldn't they keep that stuff in the back until its supposed to go out. But then I keep thinking Wal-mart is a logical and customer friendly company. What was I thinking?!

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it's not your fault it was on the shelf before the street date, refusing to sell them to you just because one of their stupid employees doesn't read the boxes before they open 'em up is ridiculous.

I don't care what that store's (or that employee's) position on it is, far I'm concerned, if its out in the aisles, it should be salable.

Yeah, they did that with the Episode 3 figures, too. If you're not going to sell them until the first, you shouldn't put them out until the first.

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I had it happen when the Transformers movie toys came out. Couple of packs of the Robot Heroes. Funny thing was, this was a Wal-Mart SuperCenter, and I was also doing my grocery shopping. So I got to the checkout counter, the clerk rings everything up, takes the toys last, and then says, "I'm sorry, but we can't sell you these until (whatever the heck the date was)."

I said, "They were out and on display."

Clerk says, "Doesn't matter. It's before their sell date. They shouldn't've been out."

I said, "Well, then, I guess I don't need all of these groceries, either!"

I got the robots...

That shows dedication, man. I mean, who else would give up food for Chibi Transformers?

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A calculated bluff, obviously, but it seemed a less hostile way to go than saying, "You put 'em out, they're merchandise for you to sell, and you're gonna sell 'em to me!" Really, in essence, just the same as the food.

And if push came to shove, there's an Albertson's just a little further down the street...

And honestly, I think that "sell date" is a load of bovine fertilizer anyway. By the time the "sell date" rolls around, any collector interested in them has seen them two dozen times on a host of Web Sites, and any kids that are interested in a toy with such a restriction doesn't CARE about "sell dates". It's nonsense.

I can ALMOST understand it for the biggest retail holiday of the year -- Black Friday -- but any other time? Sheesh, gimme a break...

Wal-Mart had put the Speed Racer stuff out before they were suppose to and pulled it. None of it would ring up. Not that it's selling now that it's officially out, but still. It'll probably sell when the movie hits. The Indy stuff though is selling it looks like when it gets put out.

Officially stores are allowed to sell the previous movie items, but they can not put out the Crystal skull items. We were told that at KB too, although they haven't sent any of it to us yet.

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its weird. they never did this with super mario bros. the movie toys or batman & robin toys.

the movie toy industry has changed.

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The whole sale date is just a strange concept. It's like they are attempting to pull off the same marketing stunt that video games and DVDs use these days. You know like when there is a slow news day and they show gamers lined up to buy the next big game for PS3, 360, or Wii.

Sure it worked out for Star Wars because they are the sort of fans that would be up at midnight just be the first geek in their circle of geeks to get the new toys, but every property can't build that sort of fan desire.

If they have the toys just put them out and sell them so the scalpers with no real job can pick out all the good figures and leave the rest for the fans and the kids.

I have been in two different stores recently and had the same issue.

The items were on the shelf, they scanned into the price scanner, they were put out for the public, and every indication was there that said items were available to purchase.

The first item I went to buy wouldn't scan at the register. The floor manager comes over and asks what's the problem. I work in customer service and you never ask what the problem is. You ask how may I help you. She picked up the item, tried to scan it as the cashier did, and then asked me where I got it. That kinda put me on the defensive, like it was like I had done something wrong.

I told her it was in plain sight on the sales floor and was available for purchase.

She told me it couldn't be sold yet and I asked her why it was on the sales floor if it couldn't be sold. Then I asked her if she had a master list of the store's inventory I could have so that when I went around looking at stuff I could check to see whether or not it was actually available to purchase.

She mumbled something about they couldn't give that info to the customers. Then I asked if the customers were just supposed to guess at what products.

I told the cashier to cancel the transaction and I walked directly to customer service, explaining why I was leaving their store without purchasing anything.

I stopped back in a week lalter and was going through the line just as the same floor manager was walking by. The cashier asked me, "Did you find everything you were looking for?"

I paused, looked directly at the floor manager and said, "Yeah, but then I figured it probably wasn't available to purchase yet and put it back. That happened last time."

Floor manager turns red and I cheerfully smile at her as I paid for my purchase, then whistled good-naturely as I left the store.



The other time I stopped back in to a store the very next day to get more of an item and they said they couldn't sell it. I pulled my sales receipt out from the previus day and said, "Oh yeah? Then why did you sell it to me yesterday?"

Floor manager stammers excuses while I stand there with my arms crossed shaking my head in disgust. "Whether or not you were supposed to, you did, and set a precedent. It's not my fault, and how am I supposed to know what products can be sold one day and then not the next. It's on the shelf! I suggest you send an employee over to remove the items before someone else gets really upset."

I don't care what the excuses are. If it is put on the shelf where the public can see it, touch it, pick it up, and carry it to the registers to purchase it-then the store should make it right and admit they made a mistake.

Offer to hold items until the street date, offer a discount for the inconvenience, offer an incentive for next time, just don't say "We can't sell it to you."

There are numerous people handling inventory from the time it is delivered to the time it is shelved. Are they saying everyone that handled the product was incompetent as to not see what the street date is for something? If it was one person maybe...

I was at TRU and Wal-Marts for the Star Wars movie toy releases.

-Phantom Menace: Went to TRU and was 30th in line. By the time I got inside the shelves were bare (five minutes after midnight). The employees of TRU brought out box after box and we got what we needed. Then went to Wal-Mart and checked what they had.

-Attack of the Clones: TRU wasn't doing the midnight thing, so I showed up at the 24 hour Wal-Mart at 9:30 PM. Went to the toy aisle and saw they had a three-section section blocked off. An employee saw me looking and told me they couldn't sell the figures early. I stated I knew that and I would be back at midnight.

Got a few other things and picked up the hardcover movie tie-in. Went outside to my cart and spent the next 90 minutes devouring the book. I finished at 11:20 PM and then went back inside. I grabbed a cart and then slowly worked my way back to the toyy section. Ran into two other guys at the same time coming from different directions. We all got that look when we realized we were all there for the same thing, so we all started talking about expectations and the previous toy release. I said I just read the book and then both covered their ears.. I waved no and said I wouldn't spoil it for them. Just as they pulled their hands away I said Darth Vader was Luke's Father. They chuckled and we stated what we were looking for and compared 'spoiler' lists. At midnight we all went down the aisle to those three sections and each of us had our own. After a few minutes we were calling out what we had and who needed what. We were polite, well-behaved, and after we loaded up we helped the stockpeople refill the shelves.

-Revenge of the Sith: I kept in contact with one of the guys and we decided to meet up again for the third one. Did the same thing and our helping the employees for AOTC came in handy because two of the employees remembered us and got us stuff from the back. Then we went to two other Wal-Marts that night before going home around three AM. Got up at 6 AM to go down to Target for their opening and exclusives.

I was lucky enough to get a special mailing from Target because I had purchased so much Star Wars since that store opened. It gave me 15% off any Star Wars purchase I made on the new toy release day. Another shopping cart later and I had about everything I needed.

I have to admit those were the only major toy release I've been part off and it was fun. I met some new friends and got rewarded for assisting the employees.

Those were handled the right way. No pushing or upset people.

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As a former retail manager, they cannot refuse sale of merchandise unless it is defective or on recall. We had a stupid employee sell a movie before it's street date because the idiot saw it and well, Paramount was pissed and sent all these letters saying they wouldn't allow us to sell any of their movies...blah blah. Write to Walmart corporate or call them, you'll get something out of it and the dumbass employee will get an ass chewing. If a company puts it o the shelf, the consumer has every right to buy it. And since the toys are not to be out until the 1st...that's a pretty long time for them to be out. That said, the store has made the grave error no matter if their registers won't ring it or not.

(I had to do that to KB toys recently, sorry J-Man...got me a $25 gift card out of the deal.)

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Hey, no big deal to me. I know not to put stuff out before it's time. I almost felt like doing the same thing a few weeks ago when Toys R Us put out the Iron Man figures before the street date. It makes me mad every time some store does put out something before they're suppose to. I'll have it in my hands and go to the counter only to be told I can't buy it. It makes me mad to know my "luck in finding these" are going to go to a scalper who'll be there as soon as the store opens on the street date.

So yeah, a store should pay up really for screwing up. It's clearly marked on all of the cases about when to and not to put something out. Even still, corporate sends emails to the managers about it. I'm an assistant manager so I see the emails. I'm always the main one that's hands on with the stock. It doesn't take much to read. Generally there's a promotion with the street date items too along with having to clear space on the shelves. It's a full blown screw up and takes a person not knowing the job to put something out early. Plus they usually have to go out of their way to screw up too.

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I swear I think this is all marketing tactics sometimes. Release dates (to build anticipation, but also super scalpers who have buddies raid the stock rooms early to place the items online) low supply (to create a seemingly "demand" on the secondary market leading to headlines of outragious ebay auctions).

Here is the most novel idea I can think of, if Hasbro or any toy company REALLY REALLY want to keep the items until the release date, don't send them out early. Seems rather logical when you think about it, but then again that would make sence in this world wouldn't it.

Well it's like the Batman figures. Wal-Mart is putting them out all over the place. KB has a street date of 5/5. I don't know why, but they're sitting there waiting to go out and not sell along with the rest of the Batman stuff. They sent some last week, and more will be here this week. I'd assume the rest will come in the following week just in time to go on the shelf. In most circumstances, that's why they come in early. It gives the companies long enough to trickle in the cases. Why they don't ship them all at once I don't know, but that does seem to be how it works. In other circumstances we get it a week ahead of time. That's usually because the street date is before the next truck, but several days after the truck of the week. I can understand that to some degree, but still it's dumb to even have a street date anyways.

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