I have heard alot of people from Ohio, Cali, Texas got their new toys rather quick. How come NE is so slow? I still think the ppl in Central USA is the fastest to lay their hands on new TFs. Please explain.
distribution. the toys are shipped across the pacific ocean from china. so moving across the country, the eastern areas get them last.
I don't think distribution delays has 100% to do with it all the time because I bought some of the Allspark battles Movie figures in Tru a week or more before I seen anything online mentioning them hitting retail. I also snaged other figures from various lines over the past couple of years before word of them being available in stores was online.
It's a mix of things. 1.) Incoming ports are on the west coast (most, if not all, are located in California.) 2.) Distribution systems adjust themselves accordingly for the larger metro areas first, then the smaller locales receive priority, etc, etc. 3.) The items are then shipped from the customs ports to the dealers, company warehouses, etc. 4.) The warehouses receive stock info from the stores about which ones can handle the influx of new goods and which ones can't. So of course, some stores will receive product and others won't for a long time, if at all. There's a system to it, and it's completely legit, the only problem is is that it's not perfect and nothing is. For everything else, there's eBay. Learn it, live it, use it.
Also people don't realize how many freaking stores there are out here in california. It always trips me out to here people talk about not having to make hour long drives to got to target or toysrus. The targets here are like 5-10 minutes away from each other. It makes sense that we get more trucks, more often, which just increases the odds we will get stuff sooner. Cali stores probably restock several times before stores in more rural areas get anything
Not really I have my animated toys already from Walmart NY while other central states still haven't seen it.The problem is the stores are so flooded with movie toys some overnight workers just keep it in the stockroom I told the worker I would help them packout and help with sales by relieving them of some animated toys
because the NE is the armpit of america...haha..kidding.... yeah...plastic crack gets imported from the west...goes east slowly...very slowly....still slowly....
In defense of Ohio, Cincy was the US test market, so it's kinda expected that they'd be all over there. However, I haven't found them in the greater Dayton area, so they haven't reached the entire state, yet. (Personally, I made the trip to Cincy before gas prices spiked and got just about everything. Just give it time.) EDIT: Animated has hit Dayton area stores (well, at least one Wal-Mart). Picked up Lugnut and Grimlock earlier this evening. So for those of you still waiting, don't give up. They'll get there soon enough.
Don't give up on east coast wal's. Ny, del, and pa have got animated in now or will soon. They moved cross-country much quicker than usual.
It's one of the few things that I'm not crazy about having made the move to Maine, I have no clue how well distrubution is. I'll have to take a trip out to Newport of Bangor over the weekend to see. At least it's a temp move.
you guys have the same problem i do know i live in florida and around the big citys the stuff shows up but where i live notta geriatric-ville man its terrible and my walmart hates to restock nething
Not just a Northern problem, you have to wait what seems like forever and a day in North Carolina for things to hit the shelves. Forever and about 3 weeks if you try one of the more rural Wal-Marts because they love to flood their shelves with the movie of the month toys but never put out any good stuff like Transformers or GI Joe.
I remember back when Cybertron first came out, New England was one of the first areas to report the toys hitting retail. There's a lot of reasons for stores gettting one wave first and the next wave dead last. The biggest reason I see is the large quantities of Movie toys still on the shelves.
