Tell me about it. I spent several hours once trying to explain to an American friend of mine that in the UK unless you live near a TRU, you're screwed for being able to buy Transformers toys in-store. Our local Sainsburys Superstore has one shelf, and they're usually clogged to the brim with overpriced Scout classes or one or two Deluxes from ROTF. Even in the middle of Swindon town centre, which is apparently an ~up and coming~ locale, you're lucky to find anything. :/ I am heading up to Bristol in August to see what their Forbidden Planet has to offer, though. Wow, really? Out at our local TRU (on the Swindon/Oxford road) they have a whole clearance shelf dedicated to Transformers at the front, with most TFA Voyagers and Deluxes knocked down to insanely cheap prices, and then several more scattered around the store dedicated to unwanted ROTF figures. I refuse to allow myself to go there again because I picked up somewhere around 25 figures for £110, which I thought was quite good. >: Also, I've only been there three times on seperate days of the week (Monday, Thursday and Saturday), and each time the store has been deserted - of staff, not customers. I'd say there were a good 17 customers in there, but only two members of staff, one on the floor and one on the Customer Service desk. Both were rude and entirely disinterested in helping us. I did feel a little like giving up and leaving, but...I wasn't going to let their pissy attitude stop me from buying what I wanted. XD Mum was fuming, though. She's worked in the customer service sector for 27 years, and she was on a full rant of how they were allowed to get away with flat-out ignoring us all the way home. ^ This is so true, though. To survive in the modern market any store needs a good website (like HMV and CEX) and I just find Toys R Us's a complete nightmare. -.-;
When did you see this because I was in the Gloucester branch (just down the road from you mate!) only yesterday and I certainly wouldn't call the prices insanely cheap. £10 for an Animated voyager should be the RRP IMO. I also refuse to pay £8 for a scout. Boy they really do love to over stock on their exclusive 2 packs don't they?
Well the fact that you had to get to work makes you sound a little less crazy. But, I mean come on i'ts not bad customer service if there isn't hardly anyone there, they only schedule x amount of people per day, some one could have been on break or lunch, you don't know. I work at WM and there has been days when no one was scheduled in the frozen section from third shift to closing the next day, but WM isn't in financial decay.
Not scheduled in a section is one thing. Not having any cashiers present is completely another. That is bad customer service, let alone bad business period. The thing about good customer service is it dissuades theft, and keeps customers happy. Not having anyone near, watching or at the registers is just plain bad business. Even an accident in the back isn't an excuse, because if that's the case at least one person should be manning the front at all times so the chaos of an accident isn't accentuated by theft too. The electronics counter is supposed to be manned at all times too. So if you can't ring out at the main cashiers, you can ring out there at least.
It's hard to say when mine at least never has a clearance and often marks up things quite a bit. My local TRU actually raised the price on its ROTF exclusives after they'd been out for a year. Seems they've done the same to MP Grimlock.
Dude, we have a Gloucester branch?! All those years in Cheltenham at university, wasted! *headdesk* But this was basically last week. They had the usual WATERFALL of Bumblebee and Ratchet two-packs, but when I annoyed the shop floor assistant by removing them all from the shelf (hey, I put them back!) to see what was behind them, I managed to find me a Wreck-Gar, a Skywarp and a Lugnut at £12 a go. Considering their Amazon/Play/eBay prices, it was quite a find. The Universes were confined to Silverbolt, Darkwind and Powerglide, though. I wish they'd get some slightly more awesome ones in... And yes, £8 for a Scout is completely insane when they're basically glorified Legends - and Legends at £5 a pop is laughable, too. (Although TRU has them at £1.99 at the moment, so I picked up a couple of my favourites.) When a friend of mine mentioned the US price of 'em in passing my jaw nearly hit the keyboard. CAN WE SAY MARK-UP MUCH. :/
To save you the time, don't bother. With the exception of an overpriced MP Thundercracker, WST Snarl and Henkei Galvatron, you will only see ROTF stock which can found anywhere else (TRU, Asda, etc.).
Damnit! Well, thanks for the heads-up. I'll just flail generally around the store in any direction, then. (Only the second time I've ever been to a Forbidden Planet, and the first time may or may not have blown my mind.)
It's shocking cause I never see any good TF stuff at grocery stores. The last time I bought something there was a few years back at Walgreens. I bought those PVC figures Heroes of Cybertron. I don't know. Have you seen the size of a TRU? To have only 2-3 working there at 7:30 PM is ridiculous. I went back yesterday and almost the same thing happened. Girl was super busy at the return/exchange line. She paged for help but no one responded even though the guy manning the electronics register (same weird kid from last time) was standing next to her. He was too busy picking up some batteries that he had accidentally knocked over. I asked him if he could ring me up. He said something about not being able to cause he was assigned to the electronics register. I said cool let's walk over there and get me taken care of. He then told me some lie about not being able to because the register was acting funny. I was mad by this time but kept my cool and decided to wait till the girl was able to help me. I did this just so I wouldn't be accused of being impatient lol. So after 20 minutes I had my toys. Man, what a pain in the ass Drift and Thrust were to get. Watch them break when I pull them out from their package lol.
