I wanted to ask folks on here a question. As I know some of you work retail and such. My Question is this:

 

How does hasbro know what item is popular and such Tf wise?

 

 

I was thinking about it and Hasbro doesn't sell directly to the consumers much. They sell to retailers. And I know retailers are required to order a certain quantity of stock. Now do stores like Walmart and Target let Hasbro know what items sell better then others? I know each item has its own bar code but does Hasbro get to see what figure actually sells? Or do they just ship out as much as they can before a case becomes unpopular?

 

While thinking this I started thinking about the Transformers Club. Now they require you to purchase Membership in order to purchase their exclusive items. Now I find this as them padding their numbers but thats another matter. But Does hasbro see what the club sells and what actual numbers they have member wise? Is the club really as popular as they say or are they required to tell Hasbro How many members joined only to buy one figure and such?

 

I guess what I am asking is How much actual control or insight does Hasbro have in the Tf market?

No real good answer for this one. I'm not even sure Hasbro cares to know. If they did keep track then I can't imagine that so many crappy shelf warmers would have gotten so many repaints. I'm not talking about ones planned, I'm talking repaints done down the line after they already knew they sold like crap the first time or two.

 

 

I'll never know why Hasbro decided to stick us with another HA Skids when there are STILL so many of the originals hanging around at TRU stores. Even worse that they put it in the very first wave!

 

There are ways they could easily keep better track simply by having their vendors take periodic counts of what's on the pegs. If they have checklists they could jot down some simple numbers on the hottest lines and it would probably add all of 20 minutes max per store. Not a terrible amount of time, but well worth it.

 

Of course, perhaps they already do this and Hasbro just isn't very good at tallying up and using the info more effectively.

 

 

Be nice if Hasbro opened themselves up to more discussions like this with the fans. In the end, it would only make them more efficient and that benefits everyone.

They should also be able to use the scanners, as when I used to work in retail, we had a computerized inventory and everytime an item was scanned then paid for it reflected it in the inventory. So getting a tally from that then sending it to the company would work easily nowadays as that was 10 years ago

I wonder if anyone has ever considered starting an online database of what people are buying? I'd have no trouble logging in after a shopping trip to check off a couple boxes recording what I bought. Online retailers could contribute if they wanted as it would surely benefit them in the long run. Hasbro could track this as an indicator of what's selling better and combine with their own info to get a more accurate picture of the market.

I'm no expert, but from what I know, retailers tell them what sells. For example, movie stuff sells more than Universe. Well, the retailers will buy more movie stuff and request more of that (so go figure some Generations get put in yellow box for the retailers sake). I beleive they get reports also as to which products sell, sku numbers and such. But to what detail, I don't know.

Well, we could go around all day with speculating on what they do do and suggesting all sorts of things, but we'll really never know.

 

It's back to my red jelly beans analogy I made in another post. People love the red jelly beans, and yet, there always seems to be more yellow, green or whatever other color jelly beans that come in the same bag. Why is that?

 

Just to see if I was crazy I seperated a bag once...nearly twice as many yellow, twice as may orange as there were red. WHY?

 

 

The only good answer I ever got was...they just don't care! So long as people buy them...it's all good!

 

 

 

To me though, it should be a crime to repaint a figure that nobody could get off the shelves or pegs the first (or 2,3,4,5th) time around. HA Skids and BB should have NEVER been the first assortment out for a brand new line, and the Skids probably never should have been used again just because of all the original versions still lingering around.

 

To me, that's the most important reason why Hasbro not only needs to see what sells, but when and how. If a store had 100 HA Skids figures and didn't get rid of 95 of them until they hit clearance...then why put that figure out again, especially like this?

 

 

 

Ultimately it is the retailers that do decide what they do and don't want. But that's for a line as a whole and not individual figures. The only way to improve figure selections for repaints and case assortments is if Hasbro takes it upon itself to do so. They apparently won't either. So we're up to the mercy of what they like and don't like...and apparently they HATE red jelly beans!!!