Also saw Runabout here. Didn’t get because we didn’t want him. Sadly, no Thrust yet.

 

Not sure if frowned upon... but I have Runabout in hand doing the ol’ switch-a-roo. Rang up a Hoist and got him. I went to purchase and it did say street dated for 12-1. Went over to isle grabbed a different one and swapped with Hoist. So either way. In hand Hois... Runabout, I’ll be posting pics on insta tonight pending him not having issues like my Runamuck.

 

I did the same thing with an Ironworks earlier today. I took Ironworks and a Runabout up to the self checkout, scanned Ironworks twice with the hand scanner, then after putting both in the bag I hit “cancel item” and gave the employee the Ironworks

 

Still dont understand why an exclusive has a street date?

 

When an item has a release date in Target's system (for online pre-orders), the store systems see it as a street date before which the item should not be sold (this makes sense in the context of things like movies, for which there are strict contracts about when they can be sold). This doesn't affect all TFs at Target because most of them ring up with the assortment DPCI for their size class, rather than the individual item DPCI used on the website (only the individual DPCIs should ever be tagged with a release date) - but exclusives, like Runabout, ring up with the individual DPCI in store, so the system sees that there's a date of 12/1 associated with it and blocks the purchase.

 

No, I always thought a street date was to allow retailers the same time to release a product to prevent any one retailer from getting a head start in selling and thus creating that artifical demand, in the case of an exclusive , a completely moot pt.

 

Yes, after someone does that, the store's system will say they have one less retail Deluxe than they actually do, and one more Runabout than they actually do. If enough people did this at a given store then the system would say they were fully stocked with Runabouts despite having none, resulting in that store likely never restocking them.

Yes. But my point was that Target's system doesn't differentiate between different types of release dates for different types of items - if an item on their website has a release date, then the store systems see it as a street date before which the item should not be sold. This system was built for things like movies, but now that TFs have pre-orders with release dates, it's adversely affecting them.

 

ah i see

 

Runabout according to RK is shipping on February 2021 but they said the same for the Galactic Odyssey Paradon Medics for release on December 2020 which they released last week October/1st week of November. Hopefully they also give him an early release.

 

I haven’t gone into a Target to look for Runabout yet, but I’m pretty sure that Deluxe switching constitutes as stealing.

On the occasions where I’ve been streetdated (ER Astrotrain, namely), I just found a geekier looking employee to talk to. They can usually sort it out and let you make the purchase legally and without hurting inventory.

 

I actually had a Target employee GUIDE me on toy switching to get the line moving at self check-out. Some stores have nicer employees.

 

Well it explains why their website/app store inventory is rather unreliable, and I’d venture to say it explains Walmart’s horrific reliability as well. ( God knows employees are circumventing SOPs all the time about exclusives and collectibles for the benefit of themselves and friends/family/business acquaintances.

 

It's definitely not stealing since you are scanning and paying for an item of the same line, class size and price. Its a touch dishonest but Target should not put an item on the shelf if its not actually for sale.

 

Yep, I have been instructed to do the same as well. If one item doesn't scan, use an item of equal value of you have it.

It may mess with their inventory depending on if a store uses individual barcodes in that manner but it isn't stealing.

 

Agreed. Not stealing!

 

While it may not be stealing, do we need a toy bad enough to mess up inventory of a store to cause even more work for employees?

 

It's neither here nor there, but the employees are already creating more work for themselves by putting street dated merchandise on the shelves prior to the street date

 

Its not the employees doing that. Its especially not the part time individual store workers thing. Its corporate/automated because it syncs with the website. Blaming store employees for this is just shallow thinking. Each store doesnt mark these things as street dated, and a lot of times, cant even override it.

Maybe I just dont get it anymore, but after working retail for years awhile back, Id rather wait until 12/1 for my toy. Id do that rather than screw up a stores inventory and risk some angry person yelling at some poor store employee for "lying" about inventory, or wasting someones gas to drive to a store that hasnt fixed inventory in the busiest shopping season during a pandemic.

I've been fine without Runabout for a few months, ill be fine for a few more weeks.

 

So wait, you're trying to say that the employees that are stocking shelves aren't the ones stocking shelves?   The stockers have the scanners in hand, they can easily see if something should be on the shelf yet or not, but they don't pay attention, thus creating more work for themselves after the fact