DonDaBomb13
Superstar
WF 10 Year Member
Joined on: Jan 25, 2006 1:04:57 GMT -5
Posts: 748
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Post by DonDaBomb13 on Jul 13, 2019 12:15:37 GMT -5
My local Walmarts and Targets suck. The last time any Elites came in at Walmart was about 3 months ago with those displays that contained Elite 65. I haven't even seen NXT Series 4 at any of my Targets. I watch UK figure reviewer Wrestling Daze on YouTube, and one of the toy stores he goes to is called Smyths (which many people here have also heard of). Smyths shelves seem loaded and fully stocked of almost anything including updated series release. The wrestling section is 5 times larger than any U.S. retailer, including what Toys R Us was. They may not get certain Exclusive figures, but I am quite jealous every time I watch one of his toy hunt videos. Plus, many figures are marked down quite quickly too. Why can't the U.S. get a store like that? (Walmart competition maybe?)
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Post by stc13 on Jul 13, 2019 12:47:17 GMT -5
As far as I understand it, the "big box store" hasn't completely taken over in other countries like it has in the US. Specialty stores will always be able/willing to dedicate more shelf space to products than catch-all retailers that are splitting shelf space between food, household goods, toys, etc. But the WalMart, Target, and Kmarts of the world started killing off the specialty stores decades ago. Now we're at the point where the big box stores are killing one another off, and it looks like Target and Walmart are going to be the last two left standing.
Odds are that we're never going to see a toy store like that again. Shoppers are just too conditioned to using big box stores as their go-to, plus the growing impact of online retailers.
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Post by theicwguy on Jul 13, 2019 13:06:45 GMT -5
Smyths isn't as good as it's made out to be! Of the last few sets from Elite 60 onwards we completely missed 61 62 63 and 64, 65 was stocked minus EY and Sherri, 66 minus Bludgeons and Wolfe, 67 minus Cedric, and we only got 2 from E68 Taker and tons of Braun. So yeah it may look like a megastore but the WWE section really isn't as impressive as it seems.
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crippler160
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Nov 25, 2017 13:13:41 GMT -5
Posts: 197 
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Post by crippler160 on Jul 13, 2019 14:09:14 GMT -5
Smyths isn't as good as it's made out to be! Of the last few sets from Elite 60 onwards we completely missed 61 62 63 and 64, 65 was stocked minus EY and Sherri, 66 minus Bludgeons and Wolfe, 67 minus Cedric, and we only got 2 from E68 Taker and tons of Braun. So yeah it may look like a megastore but the WWE section really isn't as impressive as it seems. That might be , but my Walmart has had 2 elite figures for the last 2 months. The whole toy section is pretty awful. I don’t understand why retailers have so much empty shelve space |
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Post by SmithyPlayz on Jul 13, 2019 14:16:11 GMT -5
It's better than Walmart/Target but it has started to miss figures off sets which really sucks especially when it's always the good figures.
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Post by SmithyPlayz on Jul 13, 2019 14:17:37 GMT -5
My local Walmarts and Targets suck. The last time any Elites came in at Walmart was about 3 months ago with those displays that contained Elite 65. I haven't even seen NXT Series 4 at any of my Targets. I watch UK figure reviewer Wrestling Daze on YouTube, and one of the toy stores he goes to is called Smyths (which many people here have also heard of). Smyths shelves seem loaded and fully stocked of almost anything including updated series release. The wrestling section is 5 times larger than any U.S. retailer, including what Toys R Us was. They may not get certain Exclusive figures, but I am quite jealous every time I watch one of his toy hunt videos. Plus, many figures are marked down quite quickly too. Why can't the U.S. get a store like that? (Walmart competition maybe?) Also although it's loaded that doesn't mean it's any good, when I went last I saw 4-5 shelves of Berzerkers and other figures that didn't sell. The best time I had in TRU was when they were doing refurbishments and it went smaller, it meant they didn't stock too much and restocked pretty quickly when certain stuff sold. This was during the Elite RVD time which was fun. |
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alphadeltaxray
Main Eventer
Enter your message here...
Joined on: May 9, 2019 15:41:00 GMT -5
Posts: 3,002
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Post by alphadeltaxray on Jul 13, 2019 14:36:43 GMT -5
As far as I understand it, the "big box store" hasn't completely taken over in other countries like it has in the US. Specialty stores will always be able/willing to dedicate more shelf space to products than catch-all retailers that are splitting shelf space between food, household goods, toys, etc. But the WalMart, Target, and Kmarts of the world started killing off the specialty stores decades ago. Now we're at the point where the big box stores are killing one another off, and it looks like Target and Walmart are going to be the last two left standing. Odds are that we're never going to see a toy store like that again. Shoppers are just too conditioned to using big box stores as their go-to, plus the growing impact of online retailers. Very well said and explained in great detail, thanks! |
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Stevie H
Mid-Carder
Joined on: May 11, 2005 15:04:38 GMT -5
Posts: 353
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Post by Stevie H on Jul 13, 2019 16:08:46 GMT -5
The Entertainer in the UK is bad for stock clearing. I went to one in Westfield London and they still had Berzerker, Warlord, Ascension Elite figures at £15 each.
You'd think if something hasn't sold after more than a year of being out, that they'd bargain discount them and replace with newer stock.
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Post by stc13 on Jul 13, 2019 17:56:40 GMT -5
I think one thing that gets lost is that with these mega-corporations, everything is automated. In a lot of cases the section or even store manager can't override that system. The result is...what we see now.
As someone in the states, I wonder how Smyths works. They seem to be pretty aggressive in clearancing out older series that don't move, realizing that it will clear space for the hot figures in the next wave. No store is perfect these days, but Walmart or Target are too large to care and every figure is pretty much the same to them. Tito and Rusev are a perfect example. Anyone on here could have told you the figure needed to be clearanced, and was taking up valuable shelf space that were keeping other series that collectors were chomping at the bit for off of shelves. But in Target's system they're all the same, and they will continue to sit there for a year or more just because. And honestly, I doubt anyone at Target knows or cares. Instead they just kill the whole line when the problem could have been easily addressed with any common sense.
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Post by BadGirlRyleigh on Jul 13, 2019 19:10:46 GMT -5
As far as I understand it, the "big box store" hasn't completely taken over in other countries like it has in the US. Specialty stores will always be able/willing to dedicate more shelf space to products than catch-all retailers that are splitting shelf space between food, household goods, toys, etc. But the WalMart, Target, and Kmarts of the world started killing off the specialty stores decades ago. Now we're at the point where the big box stores are killing one another off, and it looks like Target and Walmart are going to be the last two left standing. Odds are that we're never going to see a toy store like that again. Shoppers are just too conditioned to using big box stores as their go-to, plus the growing impact of online retailers. As far as I know, European countries have been very unwilling to let American supermarket-type stores like Walmart into their markets. At least that’s the way my French teacher (who lived in France for several years) described it. |
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Post by SteveHulk on Jul 14, 2019 0:41:15 GMT -5
Yeah... as others have said: Smyths used to be great - your one-stop shop for WWE figures. They've been steadily going downhill though since they started ordering cases of the same figures, rather than the standard mixed cases (that have at least 1 of each)... the trouble with this is they never order the all the figures in a series - so now we are always left with 2 (or 3) figures of a series missing... heck, for Elite 68, they only ordered Undertaker and Braun.  They are still heavily stocked with the figures they do have/order, but I'd much prefer they go back to ordering the standard mixed cases, so we can at least get every figure. |
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Post by hbkjason on Jul 14, 2019 14:04:10 GMT -5
I really cannot believe that anyone in the USA would be envious of the WWE figure situation we have here in the UK in comparison to what you guys have.
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Post by theicwguy on Jul 14, 2019 14:34:03 GMT -5
I really cannot believe that anyone in the USA would be envious of the WWE figure situation we have here in the UK in comparison to what you guys have. |
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Post by Controversial Maverick PUNK on Jul 14, 2019 16:09:28 GMT -5
I wouldn't worry about it, Smyths is going downhill pretty fast. Thing is, that wrestling Daze bloke doesn't really have to "hunt" in Smyths anymore, seeing as he gets most of his stuff free. If it wasn't bad enough that a store in the UK, sends him freebies - now, for whatever reason, Mattel regularly sends him "unexpected, mystery, packages", filled with figures, the rest of us have to pay for, like Dunne, Backlund, all three SSeries exclusives, and retrofests, among others. And yes, I am jealous and bitter.
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