Walmart distribution

[hbkowns]

With all the new unveils of the ruthless aggression ultimates and the new Monday night war line I was really excited about upcoming figures. That’s before I realized this all goes to Walmart. I don’t know about others, but the distribution at my local Walmarts are ing horrible. Online is just as bad. I have not seen any RA figures in my area since series 1. I typically don’t see any elites in my area often, if I do, it’s just scraps of what’s been picked through. I wish the remainder of the RA line would finishing up on Ringside.

[coldblooded]

So, the main purpose why retail has exclusives, is to get the foot traffic in the store. So people come to the store to find that particular exclusive item, and perhaps buy something else in the store.

That being said, that's all well in good, but half the Walmarts never get the exclusives.

My local Walmart is a super center, lawn garden, tire and lube, all that, and then some yet never got the Wrestlemania shipper, or the RA side panel.

Now online, I have no clue. I just don't know what the issue is. I'm lost on that one.

We had a Canadian guy make like 40 grand by purchasing a pallet of the BAF series containing king Harley race from liquidation.

Ringside got all the Andre as bigfoot.

We have not seen Hollywood series 2, and series 1 was just full of Cena's and Rocks that NO ONE wanted (fight me) I had piper on preorder for over a year and decided to purchase him off mercari. That preorder was since cancelled.

Steve says its up to retail how it's dispersed, and we got Walmart saying it's a Mattel issue.

It's, just a ing mess.

Why not give Walmart the fan vote figures, and put the Monday night wars figs on Amazon?

Atleast with Amazon, we know the issue lies with Mattel for distribution, but that can be blamed for covid and the tankers lost in water.

Now? Can't use that excuse anymore.

[Mongo Bears]

Because I can’t find some stuff at retail ever and if it doesn’t get up online for purchase then I end up missing stuff. It’s happened enough in the last 2 years that it makes me not care to find or buy at all so I’d have to say it’s taking some of the fun out of the hobby for me. Now I even skip some stuff I could get because I don’t care as much.

[Evil Abed]

Apr 23, 2023 11:00:02 GMT -5 coldblooded said:

So, the main purpose why retail has exclusives, is to get the foot traffic in the store. So people come to the store to find that particular exclusive item, and perhaps buy something else in the store.

That being said, that's all well in good, but half the Walmarts never get the exclusives.

My local Walmart is a super center, lawn garden, tire and lube, all that, and then some yet never got the Wrestlemania shipper, or the RA side panel.

Now online, I have no clue. I just don't know what the issue is. I'm lost on that one.

We had a Canadian guy make like 40 grand by purchasing a pallet of the BAF series containing king Harley race from liquidation.

Ringside got all the Andre as bigfoot.

We have not seen Hollywood series 2, and series 1 was just full of Cena's and Rocks that NO ONE wanted (fight me) I had piper on preorder for over a year and decided to purchase him off mercari. That preorder was since cancelled.

Steve says its up to retail how it's dispersed, and we got Walmart saying it's a Mattel issue.

It's, just a ing mess.

Why not give Walmart the fan vote figures, and put the Monday night wars figs on Amazon?

Atleast with Amazon, we know the issue lies with Mattel for distribution, but that can be blamed for covid and the tankers lost in water.

Now? Can't use that excuse anymore.

I feel like you kind of answered your own question. Ordering online gets them nothing. I feel like they're playing this game with online preorders and then delaying them and once the word spreads that they're in stores but yours is being delayed to all hell, it will force you into the store.

Walmart is the f**king pits. There's a reason beyond wrestling figs in this world why Walmart is almost unanimously hated compared to Target.

[boz1515]

I know it's easy to blame Walmart, but I live in an area that is normally pretty good for distribution. My Walmart is fully stocked with stuff that no one will buy. I blame Mattel for the choices and case numbers for the problem around here.

The bottom line is that the women figures and NXT figures just do not sell.

No one will buy:

Elite 92 Scarlett
Elite 93 Raquel Gonzalez
Elite 94 Stephanie McMahon, Wes Lee, Nash Carter

Same problem with basics and Championship Showdown 2-Packs.

[ddt4thee]

Walmart sucks, they don't even want to pay their employees to run registers, much less stock shelves and fulfill pre-orders.

[alphadeltaxray]

Apr 23, 2023 12:45:14 GMT -5 boz1515 said:

I know it's easy to blame Walmart, but I live in an area that is normally pretty good for distribution. My Walmart is fully stocked with stuff that no one will buy. I blame Mattel for the choices and case numbers for the problem around here.

The bottom line is that the women figures and NXT figures just do not sell.

No one will buy:

Elite 92 Scarlett
Elite 93 Raquel Gonzalez
Elite 94 Stephanie McMahon, Wes Lee, Nash Carter

Same problem with basics and Championship Showdown 2-Packs.

Yeah, but it's always been that way. Even before when distribution wasn't an issue. Target has peg warmers, sometimes even more so than Walmart, but they still get their exclusives on the shelves every time.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

After mine outright skipped the WM39 display and never got RA2 or RA3, I'm definitely worried about this line. The Monday Night War is too big for just Walmart, it's a line with high potential. I wish Walmart just got like an exclusive variant with every set or something small like that instead of outright exclusivity with the series.

[coldblooded]

Apr 23, 2023 11:51:57 GMT -5 Evil Abed said:

Apr 23, 2023 11:00:02 GMT -5 coldblooded said:

So, the main purpose why retail has exclusives, is to get the foot traffic in the store. So people come to the store to find that particular exclusive item, and perhaps buy something else in the store.

That being said, that's all well in good, but half the Walmarts never get the exclusives.

My local Walmart is a super center, lawn garden, tire and lube, all that, and then some yet never got the Wrestlemania shipper, or the RA side panel.

Now online, I have no clue. I just don't know what the issue is. I'm lost on that one.

We had a Canadian guy make like 40 grand by purchasing a pallet of the BAF series containing king Harley race from liquidation.

Ringside got all the Andre as bigfoot.

We have not seen Hollywood series 2, and series 1 was just full of Cena's and Rocks that NO ONE wanted (fight me) I had piper on preorder for over a year and decided to purchase him off mercari. That preorder was since cancelled.

Steve says its up to retail how it's dispersed, and we got Walmart saying it's a Mattel issue.

It's, just a ing mess.

Why not give Walmart the fan vote figures, and put the Monday night wars figs on Amazon?

Atleast with Amazon, we know the issue lies with Mattel for distribution, but that can be blamed for covid and the tankers lost in water.

Now? Can't use that excuse anymore.

I feel like you kind of answered your own question. Ordering online gets them nothing. I feel like they're playing this game with online preorders and then delaying them and once the word spreads that they're in stores but yours is being delayed to all hell, it will force you into the store.

Walmart is the f**king pits. There's a reason beyond wrestling figs in this world why Walmart is almost unanimously hated compared to Target.

I get that, but at some point Mattel has to look at themselves and wonder why everyone hates when they give exclusives to Walmart. Mattel and target? F'n awesome. Mattel and Walmart? F'n terrible. So the issue is clearly Walmart. But what that issues is, Mattel and Walmart need to find out and rectify it.

[Figure Nova]

Apr 23, 2023 12:45:14 GMT -5 boz1515 said:

I know it's easy to blame Walmart, but I live in an area that is normally pretty good for distribution. My Walmart is fully stocked with stuff that no one will buy. I blame Mattel for the choices and case numbers for the problem around here.

The bottom line is that the women figures and NXT figures just do not sell.

No one will buy:

Elite 92 Scarlett
Elite 93 Raquel Gonzalez
Elite 94 Stephanie McMahon, Wes Lee, Nash Carter

Same problem with basics and Championship Showdown 2-Packs.

I swear if I still see the Elite 85 Nia Jax on the shelves here at my local Walmarts, I’m taking a blowtorch to them.

One of the WM’s here still has a peg of Mae Youngs FFS.

[J-MANN]

I guess I’m lucky that I have 6 Walmarts within 20 minutes of where I live. But with that said - none of them have stocked any mainline elite sets since Elite 94 and as far as the Ruthless Aggression line goes, I’ve only seen series 1 in store. And that was once.

I’m extremely scared I won’t be able to find any of the Monday Night Wars figures - especially the Ultimates.

As far as Walmart goes on ordering online - I’ve only received one ‘preorder’ order from them in the last two years.

[Flair Forever]

Can anyone - ANYONE - please direct me on how I can buy or order a Ruthless Aggression Eric Bischoff?

It's a figure that I'd like to have and I have zero confidence that this figure is even going to see light-of-day in the United States.

I have zero confidence that I will find this in any American Walmart.

[MonsoonMan]

Apr 23, 2023 16:03:16 GMT -5 Flair Forever said:

Can anyone - ANYONE - please direct me on how I can buy or order a Ruthless Aggression Eric Bischoff?

It's a figure that I'd like to have and I have zero confidence that this figure is even going to see light-of-day in the United States.

I have zero confidence that I will find this in any American Walmart.

they will start showing up on ebay when they release. ive already seen a bunch of Kevin Nash figures on ebay for $40+

[MonsoonMan]

i also collect star wars black series figures and their walmart exclusives are hard as hell to get ahold of too. ive had numerous times where ive been lucky enough to secure a pre-order online and then all the sudden my pre-order ends up getting pushed back multiple times and then ultimately cancelled EVERY TIME.

[FigFanVader]

I get that the idea of store exclusives is to get you in the store so you buy other things when you're there. But whenever I go to Walmart the toy aisle is pretty much empty, not just no wrestling figures but hardly anything on the shelves at all. I've seen photos from other Walmarts that look the same. So instead of thinking, "well they didn't have any WWE exclusives but I'll grab some milk while I'm here," I leave the store thinking, "Screw Walmart, I'm never buying anything here." I don't even bother anymore. I do like the Superstars line, but I mostly get those on the 'bay and have found them for only slightly more than retail while saving myself the hassle of driving and wasting gas.

At least Target seems to have figured out distribution and I've been able to get all the Legends releases there, and I usually buy more stuff while I am in the store because I'm happy with my shopping experience. It is a shame that good figures get lost at Walmart, but hopefully Mattel finds a way to make up for it like they are doing with the King Harley being released in the Greatest Hits line. I'm sure we'll see more Bischoff figures, too.

[megapowers2013]

This thread read my mind! I posted a question to Steve in the Q&A moments ago. Hoping this gets fixed.

[arossi417]

I guess it's rightfully so, but toys have to be at the absolute bottom of the priority list at Walmart to stock. Even their exclusive vinyls hit the racks at the exact release time, but we're all stuck refreshing forum pages to see if anybody saw the mythical WWE2K shipper with the newest figures. I don't get it because it doesn't seem like much of an actual partnership for Mattel here, but with limited retail options, I guess they're stuck with them for the time being. The online issues completely stump me for a retailer that's supposed to be "competing with Amazon" on that front.

I don't honestly have a really good answer other than hoping somebody with a ton of capital realizes the hole Toys R Us left in the adult collector market and figures out a solution. I'd echo in here that Target does an okay job, but I'd also point out in general since 2018-19 when I started, I've moved almost all my buying of mainline elites/basics/battle packs to other retailers since I can't trust the big 2 retailers to readily have them in stock in a timely fashion.

[powerfred3k]

Again everyone needs to read this and ask who is "responsible".

Mattel is doing a terrible job getting wwe figures to walmart.

Mattel is getting the wwe figures to walmart but they are not getting the product to stores.

Mattel is not doing there job, walmart is not doing there job, or it be both.

Distribution of wwe figures has always been not that great, overall.

It does seems that it has gotten worse at walmart stores.

So pegs at walmart stores are empty for months then they get overstocked with several cases of the same series.

I think a solution might be to get mattel reps go to walmart stores, and assess the situation.

An even better solution would be just completely switch over to a vendor model for mattel products at walmart and target stores.

If mattel as a company wants to exist in the future and not die out or get taken over (hasbro) I think this is what they should do.

Would love to hear what Action Figure Attack and MattelDesignTeam think about this.

If you have a dedicated vendor i would think your sales would increase because there would be a lot less empty pegs.

Would a small increase in sales at walmart and target stores not pay for the potential vendor's salary ?

[powerfred3k]

Apr 23, 2023 10:39:50 GMT -5 hbkowns said:

With all the new unveils of the ruthless aggression ultimates and the new Monday night war line I was really excited about upcoming figures. That’s before I realized this all goes to Walmart. I don’t know about others, but the distribution at my local Walmarts are ing horrible. Online is just as bad. I have not seen any RA figures in my area since series 1. I typically don’t see any elites in my area often, if I do, it’s just scraps of what’s been picked through. I wish the remainder of the RA line would finishing up on Ringside.

I agree with you 100%, i have bought more aew figures at walmart in the last year than wwe figures by a wide margin.

I am telling you its highly likely that rsc or discount stores will get in the unsold/unwanted ruthless agression figures that walmart does not order.

The only question is when because walmart i think is already having another line replace the RA line coming up.

[megapowers2013]

There’s large demand for these figures being Walmart exclusives. Makes me miss TRU and Kmart even more. Anyone remember how stocked Kmarts used to be? Ah, how I wish Walmart would just honor the collector market just a little more. One can dream.