The Energon Pub

Warning!!! 3 of my Walmarts in Eastern Pennsylvannia had nothing DOTM stocked on shelves/pegs yet at 5:00 am est.

I left my house at around 4:33 am EST & drove to my local walmart that's 45 miles away round trip.

I arrived at the Walmart at around 5:00 am EST.

I grabbed a shopping cart & headed towards the toy aisle.

To my utter surprise,their was no DOTM toys stocked on the store shelves/pegs yet. their was nothing stocked on the end cap. I walked all around the toy department checking other aisles & other end caps. GUESS WHAT NOTHING.

ANOTHER SURPRISE,no space was cleared out in the TF section for the newer DOTM toys. no end caps were cleared out. no stickers/labels were placed on the shelves/pegs yet.

I did noticed about 50+ store employees running around with pallet jack with wooden skids attached to them. apparently all departments were getting stocked & not the toy department.

I then asked a store employee to locate me a manager so I can talk to see & see what was going on.

A manager showed up 2 minutes later saying the following: The manager told me the DOTM toys were in the back stock room. he said the toys can't be put out yet because the toys have to get scanned before they can arrive on the sales toy floor.

I then asked the manager when all this was going to happen. the manager told me the following: were waiting for the 8:00 am manager to arrive to take charge of this,scan everything in,set up the shelves/pegs/end caps. put label prices on the shelves/pegs. a crew to assist the manager & so forth.

I'm no rocket scientist. but It's probably going to take the walmart managers & crew at least a couple of hours to clear out the space,clear out the end caps, print sticker labels for the shelves. scan all the DOTM toys in,stock the shelves. my guess is if their waiting for the manager at 8:00 am to arrive. they'll first take a coffee break,eat come donuts/bagels, have a meeting. then head towards the back stock room around 9:00 am. the time they ripp open the brown assortmnt boxes & scan evetything in,that could take easily a hour. my guess is they'll be another crew clearing shelves/pegs/end caps while the other crew is in the back stock room.
Then various crews have to pend up to one hours plus placing stickers labels & promo signs on the shelves/pegs/end caps. then all the crew members & manager will stock the shelves/pegs/end caps. depnding how slow/fast they are,this whole process can easily take over 3 hours to accomplish. the DOTM toys will most likely be ready for customers to buy around 11:00 am.

After hearing all this I figured perhaps this store was slow,behind,didn't have a full night crew & so forth. I then asked the manager for the other 2 walmart stores that were both 30 miles away from each other.

I called the other 2 walmarts & they told me the same exact story the first walmart night crew manager told me.

I asked the walmart manager on the phone. if their was any hidden agenda in not placing the DOTM toys on shelves/pegs/end caps at 12:01 am on may 16,2011. he said no,either he was clueless or didn't want to give out company information.

I told the walmart manager on the phone. what's the point in being a 24 hour store if your not going to take advantage of the 12:01 Sreet release dates. I told the guy,why wouldn't walmart want to get the jump on its competitors like target,kmart by having the dotm toys on sale at 12:01 am. THE MANAGER TOLD ME OTHER SECTIONS ARE HIGHER PRIORITY & TOYS ARE LOW PRIORITY. after hearing that I told him these TF movie toys sell out & makes stores high profit like the starwars episode 1 thru 3 movie toys. why exactly isn't a higher seller toy like the TF movie verse toys not high priority. the manager was clueless again.

I then told the walmart manager on the phone. was this all done to thwart the scalpers/collectors efforts at arriving early,buying all the DOTM toys & leaving nothing later in the day for parents/kids. He said no but he was clueless.

I then told the manager on the phone. why didn't you guys at the very least clear out the space needed to place the DOTM toys on. why were no sticker labels placed on the shelves/pegs/end caps caps yet. I told him,you guys had litteraly 6 weeks to prepare & clear out space as the DOTM stock piles were sitting in the back stoxk rooms for 6 weeks.

I then told the walmart manager on the phone,thanks for your time,good bye.

MY PERSONAL OPINION ON THIS MANNER. their must have been some sort of wamart company meeting. to thwart the scalpers/collectors efforts from buying up all the DOTM toys early in the morning & leaving nothing for the parents/kids. APPARENTLY CHAIN STORES THINKS ALL COLLECTORS/FANS BUY STUFF TO SELL ON EBAY. This decision to put the new DOTM toys on shelves at 11:00 am or later was most likely done to give everyone a fair chance at arriving to the store & buying the toys.

I wondering if this is a regional,state or nationwide walmart DOTM toy release problem. I suspose feedback from those going to walmart super early in the morning is needed in this thread.

NOW i'm wondering what target & kmart will do. regarding putting DOTM toys on shelves/pegs/end caps today on may 16,2011.

My target hates scalpers/collectors/fans. so sometimes they'll stock street release toys/other items stuff on shelves a day or 2 afterwards after street release date. my target likes to stock toys on shelves/pegs/end caps on Tuesday around 12:00 pm up to 2:00 pm. they stock the shelves late in the day to thwart the early scalpers/collectors efforts from buying up everything early in the morning. they do this so everyone can get a fair chance to buy the toys.

Who even knows what kmart will do regarding putting DOTM toys on shelves/pegs/end caps on may 16,2011. as their more behind the game compared to walmart & target.

since target & kmart close at around 10:00pm. will these 2 stores stock the DOTM toys on pegs/shelves/end caps the night before??
or stock everything later in the may 16 day like walmart?

EITHER way,call the retail stores on the phone & ask them if the DOTM toys are stocked on the shelves/pegs/end caps yet. don't waste your gas & time & run into the situation I did at 5:00am EST AT my eastern pennsylvania walmart today.

dude...Caaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllm down. There will be MORE than plenty for all

yeah, sometimes store employees are just lazy.

Fistful of Energon wrote:dude...Caaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllm down. There will be MORE than plenty for all

I wasn't un-calm to begin with.

this thread was written to alert TF fans of the current walmart DOTM 12:00+ PM shelf release date.

so others do go to walmart super early & find "nothing" DOTM stocked on shelves.

I headed to one of the local Wal Marts after the gym just a few minutes ago and they had the section emptied but no figs on the pegs.. Guess they are going to "slowly work it out to the floor"..

Cyber Bishop wrote:I headed to one of the local Wal Marts after the gym just a few minutes ago and they had the section emptied but no figs on the pegs.. Guess they are going to "slowly work it out to the floor"..

I'm wondering if this should qualify as news & being on the front page news section.

Just to alert everyone not to go to walmart super early in the morning. because their might not be any DOTM toy stocked on shelves yet.

my 3 walmarts promised the DOTM toys would get stocked on shelves way after 12:00pm 05/16/2011.

The WalMart I work at is fully loaded with DotM stuff. A crap load of Deluxes, about 20 Voyager, and 2 Leader Sentinels and 2 Leader Bumblebees. No Ironhide. And Sentinel looks even uglier in hand than he does in pics. No way I'm spending $40 on that thing.

Either you forgot to add sarcasm tags to the first post or this is a cry for help. Or youre trolling for lulz. Either way, thread of the year!

Astronopolis wrote:Either you forgot to add sarcasm tags to the first post or this is a cry for help. Or youre trolling for lulz. Either way, thread of the year!

No need for this.

I also went to a Kmart and they had nothing.. Not even Generations.. All of their pegs were completely bare.

Same exact thing happened to me this morning.

I had to drop my car off at the dealership to get some work done. I figured I would swing by one of the Wal-Mart's in RI and lo-and-behold what do I find?

No DOTM toys.

I've been waiting and waiting for these toys to be released. All weekend they've had their placement papers up for when they do their rearranging of the aisles.

I asked one of the workers in the toy aisle when they were going to put them out and she said sometime this week. She also said she has a display she needs to put together and it should be ready by tomorrow.

So for those who might be in Westerly, RI just wait at least until tomorrow to go DOTM shopping!

At 5am the morning stock people probably aren't even awake yet. Overnight usually doesn't do new display setups. Gotta give them time to do the job. Plus as someone who has worked retail, let them set it up all the way before taking from it. All they want to do it get it done and people pulling stuff off only makes it take longer thus pissing them off.

Be kind, give time.

I got the entire 1st wave of the DOTM deluxe and Human Alliance figures over a week ago, they also have the leader class out but no Sentinel Prime left only BB. So there are Walmarts that already broke the street date.

zodconvoy wrote:At 5am the morning stock people probably aren't even awake yet. Overnight usually doesn't do new display setups. Gotta give them time to do the job. Plus as someone who has worked retail, let them set it up all the way before taking from it. All they want to do it get it done and people pulling stuff off only makes it take longer thus pissing them off.

Be kind, give time.

Really? I have seen overnight stock crews putting up displays of new toy product before (Star Wars, TF ROTF, Iron Man, etc..)..
Maybe the 24 hour stores work differently (of course we have not had a 24 hour wally world down here since katrina)..

funny thing is a year from now well be complaining that theres still a ton of figures from the movie clogging shelves we just never learn

itll be "where are all the tf's hasbro?" all over again

Ok my previous post probably wasn't the most tactful, but please. Freaking out at 5 am really isn't the sane way to handle the situation. I leisurely strolled into toysrus at ten thirtyish and grabbed myself a shockwave and skyhammer. We have pretty bad distribution here but this is the first wave, everybody gets the first wave. Its wave 8 that you freak out over

just got back from my toy hunting rounds, and the only store that had any DOTM was Target,but they didnt have Powerglide or Shockwave so i went home empty handed

I worked for walmart and believe me the GM will care less if those toys r in the shelves by that specific date they will for sure but not a asap thing lol

zodconvoy wrote:At 5am the morning stock people probably aren't even awake yet. Overnight usually doesn't do new display setups. Gotta give them time to do the job. Plus as someone who has worked retail, let them set it up all the way before taking from it. All they want to do it get it done and people pulling stuff off only makes it take longer thus pissing them off.

Be kind, give time.

I use to work for Kmart & lowes on the over night crews 12+ years ago. We did do set up displays & end cap displays. we even printed out the stickers needed to advertise the stuff.

I stopped at Y'All-Mart today at 11am in search of Sentinel, and the TF section was still bare pegs. I asked a worker "what, no Transformers?" and all she could manage to mumble was "derrrr....not til tommorrow".

Tommorrow?!!

K-Mart was even worse as no space was even prepared, almost as if they were squeezing TFs out between Green Lantern and Thor toys. I left them my customary written sticky note (yes, I carry a pad of them for just such occasions!)informing them that they are morons and why.

I finally ended up getting my Leader Sentinel Prime fix at TRU in Waterford, where a coupon got me a free deluxe figure and they threw in one of those 3-d glasses Cyberverse Primes free for good measure too.

As it turns out, it's Meijer of all places that turns out to be this year's heroes. I was able to pick up all of the first wave DOTM deluxes, voyagers, and HA figures there over a WEEK before the street date. Given the controversy about street dates back with ROTF, I wonder how Meijer managed to get away with it?

The 16th is a "NOT BEFORE" date.

The 16th is not an arrival date.

Cobalt Prime wrote:I stopped at Y'All-Mart today at 11am in search of Sentinel, and the TF section was still bare pegs. I asked a worker "what, no Transformers?" and all she could manage to mumble was "derrrr....not til tommorrow".

Tommorrow?!!

K-Mart was even worse as no space was even prepared, almost as if they were squeezing TFs out between Green Lantern and Thor toys. I left them my customary written sticky note (yes, I carry a pad of them for just such occasions!)informing them that they are morons and why.

I finally ended up getting my Leader Sentinel Prime fix at TRU in Waterford, where a coupon got me a free deluxe figure and they threw in one of those 3-d glasses Cyberverse Primes free for good measure too.

As it turns out, it's Meijer of all places that turns out to be this year's heroes. I was able to pick up all of the first wave DOTM deluxes, voyagers, and HA figures there over a WEEK before the street date. Given the controversy about street dates back with ROTF, I wonder how Meijer managed to get away with it?

Instead of heading back out to the stores again. I chose to call them on the phone.

one target said they'll put out the DOTM toys when the older clearenced TF toys are gone & bought up,sometime next week or next next week.

one walmart said sometime later this week,they'll put out dotm toys when they get to it.

another walmart I called is currently in the process of putting out the DOTM & cars 2 toys on the sales floor.

another target said they have all the DOTM toys out already.

I called kmart,the managers were clueless put me on hold till I finally hung up after waiting over 15 minutes on the phone.

I honestly feel like taking my tiny digital camera with me. putting these managers on camera giving them mini interviews. then posting the results on u-tube for all to enjoy.

I hit 2 targets and 2 Wal-marts.

One Target was stocked, but was suspiciously missing all the Shockwaves, Skyhammers, and many of the wave 1 deluxes. Odd since I was the second person in the door at opening and, after talking to the stock guys last Friday, they were definitely streeting these for the 16th. They did have Leader Sentinel Prime and voyager Ironhide, who looked really, really nice in hand. I skipped both for now, but may change my mind on IH.

The second Target was stocking up Cars 2 stuff and didn't have any clue about the DotM stuff, and the SKUs were not yet loaded into their system. Seemed to me like Cars 2 was the big push for toys at the moment. I guess Cars 2 will be coming out first, hence the earlier focus.

Both Wal-marts were cleared, with the new pegs set up, but no items were out yet.

So, all I picked up so far was Roadbuster (Green NASCAR).

Gf works for walmart as an assistant manager. She hasnt seen any dotm stuff arrive. And nothing going out on the shelves anytime soon at her store. Made her look today. And the closest walmart to me has nothing. My advice is stay with stores we know that have been chomping at the bit to release, like Target and their scattered early releases. Walmart continues to suck.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless android.

Stopped by a walmart close to my work this morning and hoping to see the HUGE DOTM setup with toys everywhere, instead all i got was disarray and disappointment by walfart!! GOD! help them cause they suck! Hitting Target on the way home.

I don't think stores put toys out late to stop scalpers and make sure "normal" people get the toys. They don't care to whom they sell the figures as long as they make money. My stores are usually incredibly slow with getting new things, although I'm guessing that they'll have the DOTM figures today (I probably won't get to any of them until Friday).