Target created a UPS label yesterday for Warbird, but I'm not feeling comfortable until it's actually with ups.
Yesterday, one of the Target ladies said they were planning to bring the toys out today. Nothing out as of 3:30. One of the figures I wanted was Big Bubba Rogers (mostly for the UWF belt). His qty was still showing as a full case of 5. I placed a pick up order for shits and giggles, that was also canceled and the inventory set to 0.
@mrboshek same. Mine is sitting at label created. My ToG Splinter and Roadblock/Tripwire are under the same label. Apparently shipping out of Florence, AL so I think an actual Target store. It does not make me feel confident. It's only an hour and a half away too.
@justice UPS finally scanned the package south of Boston in the Cape Cod area. I'm guessing that's a store because I think of that area as more of vacation spot, rather than a place with a large distribution center.
@mrboshek Funny—that’s where I was able to get mine for in-store pickup! I’m on vacation in the Cape and lucked out.
@tfitz Sir, I am sorry to report that Warbird still has not shipped yet. There's obviously no way it's getting here tomorrow but when it does arrive it's still yours if you want it. Just say the word.
I'm glad I got up early Sunday and got one in the store. This is nuts. Toy collecting shouldn't be this hard. I'd bring this up with the Hasbro team tomorrow but really distribution isn't their department. There's really nothing they can do about it.
Hang in there, Fitz. It may take awhile but we're going to get you taken care of.
When I went into a local Target to pick up Warbird there were no others on the shelves. Perhaps the random difference this time is they shipped online orders from stores...who knows. Usually they have seemed to prefer letting them sit on shelves for a while to draw people in, but anything's possible with them in recent years. One thing I do feel pretty sure of is that they didn't sell all 9 in every local store to local people a few hours before stores opened or shortly after they opened.
With their Black Widow exclusive last year they did send a second shipment to stores--but it was months later and they had already marked her down to clearance prices. So a ton of people ended up getting their Widow from that second shipment that was usually half price. I wouldn't expect the same thing this year. I'd expect some other unpredictable inventory snafu, and it's anybody's guess as to what.
As far as store pick up orders go, it seems like you're at the mercy of how your store handles transitions. You're good to go if they stocked it on a shelf or left it in the proper backroom location. You're screwed if they placed the items on a pallet or cart. Just another hurdle to deal with.
I thought the UK gets everything first? Not the store I ordered from. I thought I would have one at least a couple weeks before the street date.
I don't think there's anything nefarious going on with store pickup, it's really a low-tech system. The inventory is tracked electronically and when you place an order for pickup it goes down by that quantity, but the product is going to sit on a shelf until a clerk physically goes and gets it. If a customer beats them to it, it's gone. Sometimes the listings also go live before a store opens and there will be clerks who will take care of the overnight pickup orders before the location opens which can cause an instant sell-out for those just hoping to walk in and grab it. And lastly, every store is different when it comes to organization. Especially with street-dated merch. Sometimes they go in a standard spot in the back so the overnight workers know to put the product out for the date, and sometimes they get lost until someone stumbles upon them. That's why whenever I order something for pickup and the item is low in stock I just go to the store as soon as possible. Many times I've placed a pickup order for something and ended up beating the workers to the shelf and the inventory number I saw online has always been correct, in those instances.
Yea Target's online order, in-store pickup has worked the same way for 5+ years. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't if an in-store customer beats you to it or the shopping clerk can't find where it's at in the store. I've had plenty of those orders cancelled because the clerk couldn't find the item.
Mulling that over it was a risky move by me to just do the in-store pickup early Sunday morning when she was also still available at that time for online shipping. Should have done both, because if the in-store pickup had failed there was no further recourse after around 9 AM to 10 AM EST on release day, and extras are super-easy to return up to four months after purchase.
Did both on Sunday at my local store, but I didn't try chasing Warbird down at other stores since I had online orders. It's pretty obvious the employees zero out the inventory when they can't find the item. Like I posted yesterday, I placed an order for a low desired WWE figure that had a full case of 5 showing Monday afternoon around 3:30. There were no cases of figures on the floor except "creative play" (because 90% of the time the boxes are creative play). I ordered in the parking lot, then an hour later they canceled. I wouldn't expect them to search through dozens of boxes and they can't leave the quantity open because that would be a headache trying to explain to a customer waiting for a pick up notice. My local store has been really slow pushing stuff to the floor with street or shelf dates. They used to be quite good.
The last successful pick up I had on a Sunday streetdate was Storm/Warpath.
Target shipped UPS Surepost or I would've had her today. UPS dropped off at my PO, but not early enough.
Sure would be nice if Target employees had an option to just suspend local pickup on an item instead of zeroing out the quantity. There’s tons of items that you can’t do local pickup for that are available in store, but at least it wouldn’t totally screw up their stock numbers.
A lot of the workers think they’ll get reordered from the warehouse if they zero out the stock, but that’s only for evergreen-type replenishable items. Outside of the most common toys, it’s nuking the chance of a restock at that location.
I got two preorders in early Sunday for Carol and I’m glad I doubled up. The first one went to back order, but the safety duplicate order I put in like an hour later ended up shipping out already.
It's possible that happens, but I think very few employees at a given store have the credentials to adjust inventory. I've had it happen many times where I place an order for pickup, the order gets cancelled, but the website (and even the handheld devices the clerks have in-store) still show inventory. I assume in those cases they just don't know where it is. I also think sometimes inbound inventory gets automatically added before the truck actually arrives. I had that happen at multiple stores with a new movie Blu Ray where no one could find it and I assume it was because it was loaded in too early. Maybe a late release date change, who knows? And, of course, their inventory could just be flat out wrong if someone accidentally double-scanned something or the store received a smaller shipment than expected. I think everyone understands though, at the end of the day, it's all a crapshoot and never consider an item acquired until it's physically in your possession.
It's possible that happens, but I think very few employees at a given store have the credentials to adjust inventory.
You’d think! But anybody that can log in to the store stock devices can report an item out of stock or zero them out. The only difference is some employees are trained to always zero what can’t be found and has no back room location, while others just cancel your order.
If you can convince the right employee, they'll adjust down to 0 if the inventory appears like it might be showing lost merch. I feel like all my experienced employees are gone. Yesterday, I asked a guy to look up a dpci, he put his store hand held device in his pocket and pulled out his phone to show me the app. Face palm and thanked him for the help.
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