william-james88 wrote:While relegating Generations to TRU is a decision between Hasbro UK and TRU, I dont know if the fact that you guys never got some toys to actually be Hasbro UK's fault. How do we know they didn't distribute rather than TRU not choosing to carry them?
From what I have learnt, it all stands with the retailer's choice, not the supplier.
Hasbro choose to drop characters from Waves all the time - but a similar selection is offered in another Country in the same region that then includes them - that is what winds me up.
They also have access in advance to some North American sales data and don't seem to use it. so why for example not stick more Legends Thundercracker in a wave when he sold out pretty much everywhere?.
Not that they didn't get any interest so something never got released - but the assortments they offer in the 1st place have toys missing like Viper or Huffer for example or Motormaster still being missing in the latest UK wave.
As for the Stunticon wave - Hasbro UK got so many complaints they had to explain themselves and their explanation was "It wasn't in budget to produce the product in European Packaging".
The problem with that is that if they had any wit or creativity they could at least sell Tri Logo toys in Spain & The UK & France. With the simple addition of a sticker on the boxes. especially when if you look at Canadian information there is evidence that wave was over supplied.
And then there is the issue of the former Eastern European market getting this stuff where the rest of Europe doesn't. So much so UK retailer have begun buying things from them, directly or indirectly .
And to make matters worse I have had discussions with people who run Toymaster franchise chains with multiple stores and they say they get their orders cancelled all the time as the stock gets sent to ToysRUs in it's entirety - They have even stopped smaller retailer from even having accounts unless any given order is some silly amount like £85,000 in some cases.
So they can't just ring up and order £5,0000 or £10,000 like they used to they either have to all get their heads together and make big bulk orders or buy things from wholesalers. and even if they do allow them to "Top Up" they often send the completely wrong items. The number of times they have been sent Star Wars toys they never ordered or already ordered is quite silly.
The knock on effect is the total product availability plummets - Hasbro UK also threatened UK retailers who buy from Grey sources with having their accounts suspended for a year. (Not TRU though who do it all the time as Hasbro know they dare not threaten them ever)
So that is why only the discount stores stock the things they do most of the time.
I could go on like this all afternoon... that is just the tiny tiny tiny tip of the iceberg.
Hasbro UK also allowed themselves to be bullied into closing the Hasbro.co.uk shop after retailers like TRU whined about the competition it offered... despite much of what Hasbro was selling online they didn't even take it in the 1st place.
Add in the lingering after effects of the loss of Woolworth a few years back and you have the huge clusterf*** that is Hasbro UK.
So yes Retailer choice is HUGE factor in North America - but it's Hasbro UK & Hasbro INC repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot that is as much an issue in the UK and much of Europe. And no this isn't all down to Growing older Younger or Technology as not all Toy Companies manage to be as self Destructive as them (not just LEGO either).
Not that everything is rosey in North America either - but at least the likes of Target, & Walmart actually have Transformers for sale on their sites in decent quantities - ASDA for Example had 3 of them last time I checked.