Oh I have seen it. They run full speed to the toy aisle. It's pretty funny and very very sad. I once saw one fall on a freshly mopped floor. Sign was there and all. I laughed so hard and made sure he saw me to.

 

you know when I saw them? When I was doing the same thing looking for Concept Camaro BB.

Seeing that changed my collecting habits tremendously. It's like watching a drunk puking all over himself, pissing his pants, falling down the stairs and passing out. Suddenly, maybe you don't want to drink so much, Lol.

Now I just go to Target about once a week, if they don't have what I want, oh well.

 

Whoa, that's hardcore! I saw a little bit of that during black fridays, when all the toys go on sale, and a little when Shockwave and Sunstorm went for $4.99, it was pretty insane.

 

Yea, the Hotwheels guys are NUTS (no offense cause I am sure there are a few in here). I have gone through my stories a few times on the boards, but when I worked at Target, they would line up every morning and speed walk to the aisle to see what was new. At some point they thought we were holding back the "good stuff" in the stock room, so they dressed a guy in a red shirt and Khakis and tried to sneak into our stock room to figure out where we had them stashed. I always enjoyed yelling WALK to them in the morning to see how much I could slow them down while they are still trying to speed walk the fastest to the Hotwheels section.

As far as bringing a kid with you to the store, is it really worth it to get the toy a few weeks early? I am fairly excited about some of these coming out, but there will be plenty to go around for all. I almost equate it to seeing someone at a political protest with a sign in one hand and their kid in the other. A kid should not be a pawn in any scheme, no matter how minor the scheme is. It's not like you arn't gonna get the toys eventually.

 

"they dressed a guy in a red shirt and Khakis and tried to sneak into our stock room to figure out where we had them stashed."

That's.........wow. I'm stunned by that.

Imagine how cool if you had tied the guy up and left him in the storeroom, then walked back to the toy aisle intentionally kind of twitching one eye. 5 minutes go by, 10 minutes go by, 20 minutes go by....

At first they think maybe he's looking through the Hot-Wheels himself, .... then they start to wonder, "did something happen?" And there you are, twitching...maybe chuckling every once in awhile.

Imagine the conversations they'd have later. "We sent Jerry into the Store Room man, Operation:Market_Target. And he didn't come back man, HE DIDN'T COME BACK!!!"

Lmao, eh, but I'm ******ed with what I think is funny. Be even cooler if you came back with the red shirt and told them, "Next?"

Just to watch them scramble.  

 

Wait the Three weeks. Make it fair for everyone in the store, other tranformer collectors, and yourself.

 

I feel that it needs to be mentioned that as long as there is a street-date that isn't met. The store is not ALLOWED to sell the toys and they could end up in trouble for violating that.

 

You obviously really have not much of an idea on how street dates and the computer systems and business structures work. Cash registers and store systems are programmed and maintained on a corporate basis, not a store basis. So when a new product is about to be released a retail corporation will have the appropriate marketing people in charge of said area put a do not sell flag in the computer system and update it throughout the entire retail chain, nationwide.

Now lets fast forward to the common workers who don't know a thing about toys or any other product who are unloading literally the couple thousand boxes that come off each truck at their job. By law the manufacturer is responsible for clearly marking the box appropriately to show for a street date, its unfortunate that sometimes this small step is missed. So really you want to blame a retail store for something that is really the shipping company's fault.

Also, its locked in the system as do not sell, there is literally nothing that the store could do for you. Its because the mishaps in the shipping companies that don't mark their boxes why a retail corporation has to put the do not sell ban on products. Its illegal to sell product before a street date, when it happens, that store gets fined thousands of dollars per item sold. So its a safety net for the corporation. The employees at a store are hired to stock shelves, they're not hired to be experts in street dates, or merchandising or are they expected to know every single new item that's about to hit the market. You can't blame store when something like this happens.

For an issue like this you can go ahead and kick and scream all you want but it won't change anything. I love how everyone tries to use the whole "I'm going to tell everyone I know and picket about this place" excuse. That's such an empty threat I get a good laugh every time. Simple fact is people will always choose to shop where they shop and whats convenient to them regardless of what happened to another person. You can take matters all the way up corporate if you want and I'll bet you'll get the same answer... "I'm sorry."

As others have mentioned earlier, outside of the scope of this being a theft, moral, or ethical issue, its all up to the luck of the draw with the cashier and manager. If you get a manager who is new and knows nothing about this kind of thing and the procedures you may get lucky and fluster him enough to sell it, if not you don't get a toy. Simple as that.

 

I regards to the OP's orginal question, I rank that right up there with swapping leader class figs. You know buying the new one only to return the box with an old leader fig inside. You know it's a dumbass move, so why do it?

 

i counter your double facepalm with this:

and honestly just wait the few weeks left

 

Sounds to me very much like the way stores deal with product that has been recalled for various reasons. They put a block in the comp where if it is scanned it literally flashes Not For Sale at the cashier.

In theory they could ring it up by making up a price, but that would cause other sorts of problems.

Even if you can and do get away with it, is it worth getting someone else into trouble?

 

This is both sad and strange.

 

I'd say instead of countering, you simply added to the observations of absurdity that myself and others pointed out   2+2=5, and yes, here in this thread that equation holds up.  

(Agreed. Seriously, just wait a few weeks, folks. We've still gotten reports of finding movie 2007 figures here . . . .RotF figures look cool, but not look be an ass/go to jail cool.)

 

You and me - same sense of humor. I like your idea buddy. That'd make a great episode of that one show about the grocery store workers, except change it to a toy store. I'm like you - think about random stuff like this all day. haha.

 

Sounds like the person would be trying to steal it by taking it out of the package so they can't take it from you. You got to play by the rules...what's the point in opening it in the store anyhow. Sounds like the person is just trying to be an ass.

That is about the dumbest thing I have ever heard of! they might as well just give stuff away!

 

I remember my mom drank a water in Target and then paid for the bottle.

I dunno if it's the same for toys...

 

No, it's not the same for water. Water doesn't generally come with a big "DO NOT SELL THIS BEFORE THE 30th OR WE WILL F*&@ YOUR COMPANY" warning.

I really am staggered at the sort of activities people are seriously contemplating to get hold of a toy that will be freely available in a couple of weeks time. Jesus, what were these guys like as kids at Christmas? I imagine their parents having to keep a close watch on them 27/7, after the time they went next door for five minutes and returned to find Impatient McGrabby had slit open the furniture looking for their presents. "Yeah, I had to empty the packet of flour onto the floor in case you'd hidden the GameBoy game I wanted in there. Those things are small. I know Christmas is tomorrow, but I want it now. NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW! WAH! WAH! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!!"

 

Just not a good idea by any standards. First off, if you're an adult, you're going to get stared at like a pedophile. We're all collectors here, but to the average cashier, an adult ripping a toy open so they can play with it - in the store - is just creepy. Actualy, it's creepy to me too, and I've got two shelves of transformer full-on-battle goodness right next to me.

Secondly, you're not going to see that figure get "discounted" or put on clearance after May 30th. It's getting sent back to Hasbro and credited back to the store's account. Hasbro has a damaged-ables returns policy for retailers, so it all adds up to a waste of time, energy and you'll probably get a evil retail-hex put you by the disgruntled cashier who just happens to be into the dark arts.

25 days man. Just keep breathing.

 

steal

The theift thing is true, you can not just jump someone walking out of the store with an item, several times I have exchanged items at stores DVD's that do not work for example they tell you to just go get a new one, and never ask you to go back to the counter, imagine if they just tackled me at the door.

My gf used to work in the Target Pharmacy, this is how rediculous it is, every other pharmacy store, you call the cops if someone has a forged prescription, but at Target there can be a known forger the cops are looking for and Target's policy is to not under any circumstances to call the cops, the store does not wnat to look bad.