Is it me, or do stores (mainly Targets) not carry as much as they did a year ago? I remember when Earthrise first came out, I saw a shelf with like 10 Grapples and 3 Starscreams. It took me a minute to find Optimus, but it wasn’t too long after. I was there when my store put their voyagers up (was walking around the store and two Primals appeared after I initially checked) and that was pretty sad in itself. Is it distribution? Wave 3 of Earthrise has been genuinely impossible to find, save for one Fasttrack, as well.
I'm not sure but it could be due to the global pandemic and what not. My thinking is that since more people are shopping online these days and don't want to venture out due to the pandemic, not many stores will stock a bunch of the non-essential things. I would suggest that big businesses to start ramping up their warehouses for more online ordering in the future because this virus thing isn't going to go away any time soon. Plus the latest news is that there is now a new mutated or new strained virus found in Africa. We live in a unsure world these days.
Then explain why Walmart and online retailers haven't been affected in the same way. It's not distribution. It's Target! They've been circling the bankruptcy drain for years now.
The Target on W. Hillsborough in Tampa and the Walmart in Oldsmar both have Kingdom Core Class figures on the shelves. The Walmart has at least one more unopened case on a nearby pallet, so they should be pretty well stocked for the time being.
I get delays, but it seems more a quantity thing primarily suffered by Target. I can go to any Walmart (well, prior to the Christmas rush) and typically find any ER Wave 1-2 Deluxe/Voyager/Leader and a large selection of the WFC Netflix guys. It seems like Target doesn’t have much problem stocking their exclusives, but when it comes to the rest, they’re barebones.
Target on MLK (Gateway) in St. Pete has deluxes out. One of each beast and 2 Warpaths cause I'm passing on him.
Target o. Immokalee Rd and 75 has a crap ton of the gold armor bumblebee reaction figure with the transformers......and not much else.
East Colonial Target, in no rush to restock the shelves. They had whatever the latest wave of McFarlane DC figures out both nothing else new. The shelves continue to be bare! I liked yesterday's bike ride so maybe this will become a regular habit.
Wal-Mart has not stocked Kingdom or SS86 in any way shape or form yet, hell they couldn't even properly distribute their own exclusives on time with them being delayed over a month. Target has. They've also been restocking constantly as many of us have been finding them. Target is also the only store where I've seen every retail Earthrise toy at least once (except ER Meg and Quint, but I've never seen them period). I know you're mad you can't get all the toys you want right away, but that's because everyone is hunting for them right now, not because Target isn't stocking them. I'm not gonna get pissed at Target because you bought the Primal I wanted.
I live a few short minutes from Millenia Target and a bit farther from SODO. Been checking all week for a reset since the shelves and pegs are empty. I know it is out of your reach, but I'll post here because when Millenia or SODO gets a reset then East Colonial will likely get one too.
Mt. Dora Target has 2 Firefly left, they are keeping the case in the locked drawer behind the desk at tech and only giving 1 per guest. F U Scalpers in regards to this line. Glad to see one store is helping us collectors out but ultimately this is Target and Hasbro's fault for not stocking these proper. Kingdom leader Optimus Prime x1 is here. There is also a full peg of the Reaction gold armor Bumblebee here. Some core class Optimus and rattrap. Grabbing the lone vertebreak.
Walmart and Target have both had delays with their exclusives, but every single Walmart near here had a packed shelf of Soundwaves, Optimus, and deluxe guys, in addition to the other ER waves they carry. Target can only put like four out and not replenish, and only like one non-exclusive out at a time. They can’t really hide behind the covid excuse for all of it. I’ve never once seen a Walmart without at least a few deluxe figures from Earthrise, unlike Target. Hell, Aldi has stocked their deluxes better.
I've seen plenty of bare ass Wal-Marts with nothing on the shelf. Aldi stocked them for one month and put them on clearance in a few weeks. Target does replenish, you know what happens next? People buy the stock they put out.
You can all be right. Shipping and distribution can be a trainwreck, stores can be under-ordering while not giving a shit about things like bots, and manufacturers can be relying too much on store exclusive. It’s not a zero-sum game, and none of these things are mutually exclusive. The only misconception I can see within the community at large is that something is wrong with China, but things have been normal there for months. I managed to find Firefly today; I got a tip from a friend and wasn’t doing anything else this morning, but while it was not exactly a free-for-all or anything to pick him up, I will say that nobody should ever have to go through what I just had to secure something that by all rights should be clogging the shelves. Only other thing I saw while I was out was more of the MCF Batman line that the DC multiverse turned into. I honestly can’t tell the difference between all the versions, but there were quite a few that I had not seen before. It’s a great time to be a comic book fan who’s tired of everybody not being Batman. No new transformers, no new marvel toys, in fact in quite a few locations there was literally none of either. I know we all like to get really confident that things will show up eventually, but even with Aldi’s picking up the slack, I never found a second Allicon or a single Smokescreen beyond a damaged one in Millenia Target and I guess now I never will.
I’ve been there for the stock replenishes; I have a friend that works at Target so it’s not hard to find things typically. But I don’t like asking him to take stuff straight from the box - feels scummy. (Not to mention it’ll get him in trouble) But the quantity that they put it up is laughable. I’ve been present for their restock of literally two Primals and a single doubledealer a few weeks prior. It’s laughable. I think Wave 2 of Earthrise has been the major litmus test for me. I preordered Smokescreen from Target and got him September - over a month before people were actually seeing them in stores. Distribution must’ve gone awry for Target because once the wave actually got going, Walmart stores and Amazon (and Aldi later on) had plenty of stock, but our red friend had very little. I assume it’s partly on Hasbro’s end, especially due to the disparity in Transformers stock for Black Friday compared to some of their other sections. The difference, though, between 2019 Target and 2020 Target is astronomical vs 2019 Walmart and 2020 Walmart.