Sorry, but having a high demand for a certain item is nothing new. (Tickle me Elmo, Cabbage Patch Kids, etc)

 

The fact that certain customers will be more obsessive than others is just a reality in the retail world. If having to deal with a pushy customer causes so much grief with the staff, then maybe they shouldn't be in customer service or retail?

 

Just sayin'.... :roll

 

I understand that there are extremes in every industry, and steps may need to me made to ensure fairness against certain individuals who are labeled as problematic. But at the same time, playing "distribution god" with the new inventory is simply wrong IMO. When the trucks come in, the new stuff should go out to the shelves, and that's it. Whoever gets to them first, whether it's the soccer mom and her kid - or the greasy scalper, than so be it.

 

The staff's job is to facilitate the inventory to the floor, and assist customers.... not to selectively decide who gets to purchase certain items. As long as the item is sold, and Target / Wal-Mart / TRU gets their money for the sale, then that's all that needs to be addressed by the staff.

 

To flat out deny a customer's request to pull a new case from the back when there is no stock on the shelves is simply wrong. Some people have to travel a long distance just to "hunt" for toys. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have three Wal-Marts in a 10 square block area, and asking an associate by phone for assistance is never helpful.

I don't know how much of a mark-up there is but I've seen places like Entertainment Earth selling figures by the case... why don't scalpers just do that?

Entertainment Earth's prices are usually a little higher than normal retail, plus I'm guessing most "scalpers" are only looking for specific items (those with the highest re-sale value) and have no interest in the other 11 figures (those that are shelfwarming everywhere) in the case.

All this talk about scalper reminds me of this video

where the woman buys the front spot in line for some absurd amount of money to buy all the iPhones in the store... only to get into the store and find out it's one per customer.

Insta-Karma at its finest. Wish that happened more with scalpers

People I've known that have worked at Wal-Mart said that the new shipments of Hot Wheels had to be kept locked up in a manager's office before they were ready to go out on the floor, since those dirty, dirty Hot Wheels collectors would take an adventure into the back room themselves to snatch what they wanted.

Sorry, but having a high demand for a certain item is nothing new. (Tickle me Elmo, Cabbage Patch Kids, etc)

 

The fact that certain customers will be more obsessive than others is just a reality in the retail world. If having to deal with a pushy customer causes so much grief with the staff, then maybe they shouldn't be in customer service or retail?

 

Just sayin'.... :roll

 

I understand that there are extremes in every industry, and steps may need to me made to ensure fairness against certain individuals who are labeled as problematic. But at the same time, playing "distribution god" with the new inventory is simply wrong IMO. When the trucks come in, the new stuff should go out to the shelves, and that's it. Whoever gets to them first, whether it's the soccer mom and her kid - or the greasy scalper, than so be it.

 

The staff's job is to facilitate the inventory to the floor, and assist customers.... not to selectively decide who gets to purchase certain items. As long as the item is sold, and Target / Wal-Mart / TRU gets their money for the sale, then that's all that needs to be addressed by the staff.

 

To flat out deny a customer's request to pull a new case from the back when there is no stock on the shelves is simply wrong. Some people have to travel a long distance just to "hunt" for toys. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have three Wal-Marts in a 10 square block area, and asking an associate by phone for assistance is never helpful.

Oh please. You talk about the duty of a retail store as if you gave a crap about anything besides getting the toys you want, when you want them. Maybe people should, I don't know, BE NORMAL and get a life or something. That would also solve the problem.

People also forget that the big chain stores such as WalMar and Target generally use toys as loss-leaders, which means they only carry them to entice people into the store to buy other, higher-margin products - so there's very little incentive to cater to people who are only there to snag one or two toys.

... since those dirty, dirty Hot Wheels collectors would take an adventure into the back room themselves to snatch what they wanted.

:wtf

There's a fine line between a store offering absolute customer service and a store being extorted by douchebags known as scalpers and OCD collectors. I agree that a store should do everything in their power to make the customer completely satisfied and find what they want. However, the stores do have the legal right to "refuse service to anyone". Part of it is in the way you ask.

 

If you approach an employee with a civil and pleasant tone, I'm sure they'll do what they can

 

If you approach an employee like you own the store and make demands, they're gonna tell you to pound sand (in a store PC kind of way)

 

It's absolutely amazing what some of these scalpers or OCD collectors will do to meet their ends. I've seen the "waiting at the front door" types. I do so sometimes, but only if I'm in that general area at the time. I won't make a special trip. I also have never... NEVER bothered an employee to check back stock or a pallet. That's a bit over the top.

 

I would absolutely believe the stories of these buttclowns beelining it to the back stock and ripping open pallets to get what they want. It does depend on the store and the GM though. Some GMs are more lenient than others. I still refer to a comment I made several weeks back. It's too bad eBay can't enact a system that bars auctions of merchandise with UPC codes that is less than 6mos on the public market. That would slow alot of this crap down.

 

I can dream...

I feel I must comment here. I work backroom at Target. I go in at 4 AM and pull product (called autofills) for diffrent departments. As this is going on the truck is being unloaded by another team. Pallets are stacked and organized (not always the best mind you ) acording to department. Now,some of the pallets are taken directly to the floor for 'pushing' (stocking) ,and the rest is for us backroom guys to pull over to backstock on the spot.

 

One thing I've noticed is that the new release figures always go directly to the floor. All the new 30th ann Star Wars figs,and the 25th ann Gi joes and even Transformers get pushed right away.

meh, people can just wait like everybody else. The obsessiveness is just really distasteful and weird IMO.

 

QFT.